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A while back we wrote about enabling HTML5 playback for Netflix in Ubuntu, but that required updating NSS and using an user-agent extension in Google Chrome. Well, NSS 3.17 landed today in Ubuntu 14.04 and 12.04, and thanks to this, Netflix should soon use HTML5 playback in Ubuntu, without requiring any tweaks.

Right now, the only tweak required to use Netflix with HTML5 playback in Ubuntu is to use a custom user agent in Google Chrome, but soon that won't be needed because a Netflix developer posted a message on the Ubuntu-dev mailing list a few days ago, asking if Canonical plans to update NSS to version 3.16.2 or newer and saying that if that happens, "Netflix would be able to make a change so users would no longer have to hack their User-Agent to play".

And with today's update, all the supported Ubuntu versions (12.04, 14.04 and 14.10 - currently in development) include NSS 3.17 so all that's left is for Netflix to add Ubuntu to their supported OS list, and Ubuntu users will have native Netflix HTML5 payback out of the box. Update: Netflix now works out of the box in Ubuntu, without having to change the user agent.

Of course, Google Chrome (stable - you no longer need Chrome Beta or Dev) is still needed, so it won't work with any other browser under Linux, because Netflix HTML5 requires the Encrypted Media Extensions which are bundled with it.