[ale] Boxee unveils beta, stand-alone box made by D-Link

[adam]

Benjie.godfrey wrote:
> Yes, it runs linux, and no, it doesn't work with Netflix yet. But that  
> is one of their targets before the device is released. And no, Hulu  
> doesn't work yet either, but that is for Hulu's parent companies'  
> strange, *we don't quite understand the interwebs* ancient business  
> reasons


As I have read, the reason Netflix and Linux aren't mixing is 
Silverlight, and specifically, the DRM features it provides. This 
technology must be licensed for use from MS, which is why the Roku 
(which runs Linux) works: they paid for the license to make it work.

Boxee admins have said repeatedly on their forums that they can not 
support Netflix for Linux until Netflix supports it themselves. Boxee 
can aim to have Netflix support...but unless they want to pony up the 
dough to MS and Netflix, there's nothing they can do, and I think they 
should communicate _that_ message to their users, rather than offer what 
I feel is a false hope.

Netflix has to see that a Linux client is cost-effective, that they will 
get ROI, before progress can be made.