Oh the irony
Mail-order DVD
rental company Netflix has been offering this service which allows punters to
watch online rather than wait for the postal service to deliver them. But
"Instant Watching" is only open to those who partake of the Microsoft Kool Aid
as one Linux geek found out.
A bogger by the name of "Dwasifar Sminginamini
Karalahishipoor" noticed a flick on the site about the rise of the Linux
operating system. While this was never a blockbuster, and was dated 2002, he
thought it would be a nifty idea to watch it.
However Netflix said he could
not put it on his list of Instant Watching films, but you can't watch it that
way if you use Linux. So Netflix stuck a film about Linux on its system which
can't actually use the operating system.
It highlights some of the problems
that the providers of online movies have. In the UK the BBC also faced an
outcry from licence paying Linux geeks when its player didn't work on their
operating system.
Netflix's rival, Boxee also needs a native player to be
present on the system.