[longlivegnu]

I'd also pay to be able to watch these offline and using FOSS software only. I really enjoyed netflix when I had it but I had to do some wonky work around to get it to work on Linux. Then eventually I got another Linux machine and didn't want to do the work around thus I stopped using it and eventually cancelled my subscription (thanks microsoft for helping me be more productive!).

[darylfritz]

What does Microsoft have to do with Netflix?

[chimeracoder]

The reason Netflix is tricky[0] to run on Linux is due to DRM in Silverlight, which is maintained by Microsoft.

Linux can run Silverlight applications in general using Moonlight. (Broadly speaking, Moonlight:Silverlight :: Mono:.NET). However, the DRM is not available on Linux, and was non-trivial to get working under Wine until November 2012, when someone finally published a straightforward way to patch Wine to run Netflix.

Nowadays, Netflix has also switched to using HTML5 DRM when possible, so it is possible to watch Netflix on Linux using Chrome (not Chromium). However, it's worth noting that many distributions ship Chromium instead of Chrome by default, as it is proprietary software. It is still not possible to watch Netflix on Firefox, as they have not yet implemented EME (HTML5's DRM). Because of the way HTML5's DRM works, there is no way to produce a fully FOSS browser that can watch Netflix; the DRM extensions have to be purchased uner a proprietary license.

OP's wish was to be able to access Netflix or a similar service while using only FOSS software. That is still not possible, and I don't see a way for it to become possible anytime in the near future, at least until the MPAA finally gives up DRM (the way the RIAA did).

[0] Not impossible, but definitely a pain.

[StavrosK]

It works fine on Chrome on Linux now.

[rmc]

Does it work on Chromium? Because (AFAIK) Google Chrome is not FOSS.

[StavrosK]

I doubt it, it probably relies on some DRM module that Chromium would not have (exactly because it's FOSS). Screw the MPAA.