Pipelight
Silver Screen
© Lead Image © Ali Ender Birer, 123RF.com
Video-on-demand services often don't play well with Linux because they depend on Microsoft's Silverlight browser plugin. Luckily, you can call on the Wine offshoot Pipelight to rescue your next home movie night.
Video-on-demand services such as Netflix or Hulu are so firmly established in the United States that they actually produce their own exclusive series, such as the political thriller House of Cards. For many users, video-on-demand is the new TV, and millions of modern couch potatoes are actually cancelling conventional cable television services so they can watch their favorite programs on their computer or mobile devices.
Unfortunately, most video-on-demand services do not officially support Linux because they rely on the Silverlight browser extension [1]. Silverlight was developed by Microsoft and is only available for Windows and Mac, with no plans to support free operating systems. The Linux alternative, Moonlight [2], once developed jointly by Microsoft and Novell, never did support the same DRM functions used with Silverlight and has since been dropped.
The good news is that this lack of Silverlight support doesn't mean Linux users won't have their cozy video evenings. A Linux tool called Pipelight [3] lets browser plugins designed for Windows – including Silverlight, Flash, and Shockwave – run on Linux.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 Drops bcachefs
After a clash over some late fixes and disagreements between bcachefs's lead developer and Linus Torvalds, bachefs is out.
-
ONLYOFFICE v9 Embraces AI
Like nearly all office suites on the market (except LibreOffice), ONLYOFFICE has decided to go the AI route.
-
Two Local Privilege Escalation Flaws Discovered in Linux
Qualys researchers have discovered two local privilege escalation vulnerabilities that allow hackers to gain root privileges on major Linux distributions.
-
New TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro Powered by AMD Ryzen AI 300
The TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen10 offers serious power that is ready for your business, development, or entertainment needs.
-
Danish Ministry of Digital Affairs Transitions to Linux
Another major organization has decided to kick Microsoft Windows and Office to the curb in favor of Linux.
-
Linux Mint 20 Reaches EOL
With Linux Mint 20 at its end of life, the time has arrived to upgrade to Linux Mint 22.
-
TuxCare Announces Support for AlmaLinux 9.2
Thanks to TuxCare, AlmaLinux 9.2 (and soon version 9.6) now enjoys years of ongoing patching and compliance.
-
Go-Based Botnet Attacking IoT Devices
Using an SSH credential brute-force attack, the Go-based PumaBot is exploiting IoT devices everywhere.
-
Plasma 6.5 Promises Better Memory Optimization
With the stable Plasma 6.4 on the horizon, KDE has a few new tricks up its sleeve for Plasma 6.5.
-
KaOS 2025.05 Officially Qt5 Free
If you're a fan of independent Linux distributions, the team behind KaOS is proud to announce the latest iteration that includes kernel 6.14 and KDE's Plasma 6.3.5.