[Macworld]

Post your comments for Netflix begins rollout of Mac media player here

[jamus]

And with the sweet, comes the poison.

[Dubbalubagis]

That's just silly. How much did Microsoft pay Netflix to require silverlight? Either way, it's still a great thing for Apple users but it's too little too late for me. I will be watching my Netflix on my Xbox 360 come November 19th.

[leicaman]

And people wonder why Microsoft loves DRM.

[ndelc]

Silverlight, huh? Well, I guess that was their only option as Apple wasn't willing to help out by providing some version of FairPlay. Kudos to NetFlix for doing what they needed to in order to get a solution for Mac users.

[Hurley42]

Good thing I recently installed Boxee onto my Apple TV - this makes Netflix less relevant. I would never have installed Silverlight onto my Mac anyways.

AppleTV + Boxee = The Future

[spim]

hmm .. well - I don't have an AppleTV yet
I'm using a Mini as my entertainment center.
So, I'm going to try this out (as soon as Netflix lets me).

[vfx2k4]

Was that really the only way they could implement it? Seems a little dubious. Oh well.

[ablanton]

Frankly, to serve the Mac audience via the web they only really had two choices for cross-browser / cross-OS platform. Flash and Silverlight. Silverlight has the obvious advantage of supporting full MS DRM protected path from the content servers to the end-user stream. Flash does not. With their investment already on the rather good quality (as I have tested) MS content, it was and obvious choice.

[Hurley42]

spim: boxee is also available for desktop macs. It is not exclusive to the Apple TV.

[jpellino]

I know they "had" to go with Silverlight, but they're clearly blowing smoke about the 3/4 of their Mac users being on Intel Macs. There is no way Intel is yet 3/4 of the installed Mac base, and highly unlikely that Netflix users in particular are skewed to Intel. Silverlight 1 is perfectly happy on PPC, they are going with 2, and please tell me what about DRM cannot be handled by a PPC Mac that can handle the video just fine? The whole thing doesn't pass the smell test.

[himbo]

Why is it that people who have done absolutely no market research on a given topic always think that they are better qualified to judge it than a company that has a vested interest in doing so?
Here's your reason that Netflix users would skew more toward Intel Macs: newer technology. If you don't see how people using the internet to order their entertainment would be people who tend to prefer newer computers, then it's probably a good thing that you aren't the guy making Netflix's marketing decisions.

[Casademike]

I will install Silverlight just as soon as Netflix let's me come over and install various pieces of trialware, smilies and browser search bars on all their computers...
If you are supporting the mac...support the mac. Don't make us install some MS garbage.
Sigh - I am sure this was all part and parcel with the Xbox 360 deal...I think this goose was cooked long ago.

[Peter Cohen]

Casademike said:

If you are supporting the mac...support the mac. Don't make us install some MS garbage.

Yeah, not like Microsoft is the largest third-party software publisher for the Mac or anything.

Oh, wait...

Or, for that matter, that Microsoft's Mac Silverlight development team includes key people from Apple's own QuickTime team.

No, it's got the Microsoft label on it, therefore it carries the TAINT of the DEVIL. It's UNCLEAN!!!