Joined the dark side.... Just picked up a MacBook

[kcyanks1]

Originally Posted by riverc0il

I am sure the current software available for Linux and Mac could work with Netflix. They are choosing a standard and excluding a large amount of customers by force requiring MSIE6.0+ and WMP 11+. Quite frankly, that sucks and the sooner the world wakes up to just how many people are ditching MS products, the better. In a competitive market place, we can only hope another company comes along and challenges Netflix for online viewing of videos. I would think Apple would be in the best position to do so seeing how well iTunes has done.

I don't use Netflix, so I am not familiar with it specifically, but you can download codecs to use with mplayer/xine/your player of choice with Linux and play Windows media files, including some with at least some sort of digital restriction management.

That said, most content providers just aren't going to support Linux (well, at least with free/open-source software). Years late, recording companies are finally realizing the DRM is bad for consumers and the industry, and they are finally releasing DRM-free music. The MPAA and TV studios haven't grappled with reality yet. Until they do, they can't provide the type of software most Linux users want. Linux users have to do it themselves.

[BeanoNYC]

Originally Posted by kcyanks1

Yup .. so should we start a Linux users group to compete with the Mac one?

Please Ken, no competition just dedicated groups to prevent some hijacks.

[kcyanks1]

Originally Posted by BeanoNYC

Please Ken, no competition just dedicated groups to prevent some hijacks.

Sorry

[mondeo]

Originally Posted by kcyanks1

I'm somewhat confused here. nVidia (to pick on them) sells graphics cards. People don't buy nVidia products because they have great drivers. Some people who are more extreme and me in their beliefs will *not* buy nVidia products because of their (unopen) drivers. If nVidia were to just open their drivers, Linux drivers would be created for them -- they wouldn't even have to put effort in. That would be a "solution", I think. (Not trying to be a wiseass, I perhaps am just not following what you are saying.)

It's the same reason companies don't always patent things. If nVidia puts their drivers out there for the world to see, then AMD can figure out how nVidia does things, and possibly improve their drivers without actually infringing on any patents. It would be like Intel posting a schematic of their core design. No, AMD can't copy it, but they can get ideas from it. It's due to the trade secret aspect of the drivers.

Mac controls all of the hardware and software. If one party has full control over the entire system, compatability is much easier.

It's more than that for Mac, it's built into the OS:

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

Because device drivers in operating systems with monolithic kernels, and in many operating systems with hybrid kernels, execute within the operating system kernel, it is possible to run the kernel as a 32-bit process while still supporting 64-bit user processes. This provides the memory and performance benefits of 64-bit for users without breaking binary compatibility with existing 32-bit device drivers, at the cost of some additional overhead within the kernel. This is the mechanism by which Mac OS X enables 64-bit processes while still supporting 32-bit device drivers.

Must...stop...threadjacking...

[kcyanks1]

Mike -- So, to end the threadjacking, you make some fair points. Perhaps we'll resume this discussion another day

[ckofer]

The skis go away and the pocket protectors come out.

[riverc0il]

Originally Posted by kcyanks1

I don't use Netflix, so I am not familiar with it specifically, but you can download codecs to use with mplayer/xine/your player of choice with Linux and play Windows media files, including some with at least some sort of digital restriction management.

This is still Mac related since it is an issue with Mac's too, so I will continue this one issue The issue isn't with the player but rather the Netflix site detects your browser and lack of WMP11 and redirects you to an error page instead of the content. My company has a similar block on their employee self service page which only allows IE and Netscape (*COUGH* I mean really, a discontinued browser over Firefox?). This type of stuff is total crap in a multi-platform world. Linux has issues with HiDef right now, that could be a potential issue but not allowing for usage on a Mac? Or a DRM issue, LAME. Something is just off about that. For reference from the redirect page:

Originally Posted by Netflix

Watching instantly on your computer

Sorry, your computer's operating system is not compatible with watching instantly.

You can watch instantly using your Netflix account from any computer meeting the system requirements given below. And, your computer is fully compatible with adding titles to the Instant Queue for later watching on compatible devices.
Complete System Requirements

To watch instantly on your computer, you'll need a PC meeting the following minimum requirements:

* Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or higher, or Windows Vista
* Internet Explorer version 6 or higher
* Windows Media Player version 11 (DRM version 5145) or later
* An active broadband connection to the Internet
* 1.0 GHz processor
* 512 MB RAM
* 3 GB free hard disk drive space

For the best experience, we recommend:

* An active broadband Internet connection of at least 1.5 Mbps
* 1.5 GHz processor

[kcyanks1]

Originally Posted by riverc0il

This is still Mac related since it is an issue with Mac's too, so I will continue this one issue The issue isn't with the player but rather the Netflix site detects your browser and lack of WMP11 and redirects you to an error page instead of the content. My company has a similar block on their employee self service page which only allows IE and Netscape (*COUGH* I mean really, a discontinued browser over Firefox?). This type of stuff is total crap in a multi-platform world. Linux has issues with HiDef right now, that could be a potential issue but not allowing for usage on a Mac? Or a DRM issue, LAME. Something is just off about that. For reference from the redirect page:

Can you use the user-agent-switcher plugin in Firefox that allows you set what your browser reports itself as? You can run Firefox in Linux/Mac and have it report itself as IE running on Windows.

[mondeo]

Originally Posted by ckofer

The skis go away and the pocket protectors come out.

If people think this is bad, they should witness some of my conversations with people I work with. And these conversations are just as seasonal as my ones about skiing.

[dmc]

Originally Posted by ckofer

The skis go away and the pocket protectors come out.

no doubt...
just got finished doing an install of Teradata on SLES ... Rather be skiing..