14 ms·

Netflix uses FreeBSD 9.0

161 points by auvi 13y ago

alberth 13y ago
From June 2012, more information at: http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2012-June/068129.html http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2012-June/...
kev009 13y ago
At vBSDCon Scott Long announced they'd been tracking -CURRENT for over a month, so assume they're already on 10-STABLE in a lot of places. Some good details on the OCA http://people.freebsd.org/~scottl/Netflix-BSDCan-20130515.pdf http://people.freebsd.org/~scottl/Netflix-BSDCan-20130515.pd...
vezzy-fnord 13y ago
Yet you can't actually use Netflix on FreeBSD.
- cperciva 13y ago
  Between the two, I'd rather use FreeBSD than Netflix.
  - donniezazen 13y ago
    That's what I think Netflix is not even a global thing. While projects like FreeBSD and Linux will keep the platform open for next big thing.
    - lstamour 13y ago
      You may be a bit confused. GNU keeps things open. FreeBSD and/or Linux ... well, I don't mean to troll. :)
      - eyko 13y ago
        I don't consider that trolling, just statement of fact. But I guess it depends on what each person considers free. GNU has a concept of freedom that it tries to protect via the GPL. Licenses like the BSD or MIT do not. Personally, I think this licensing difference is what makes companies use code from one but not the other. E.g. Apple's Darwin and it's kernel (XNU) contains code from BSD. While Darwin is "open source", it acts as the core/foundation of a closed source OS. Had they used a GNU kernel like Linux, or GNU libraries (glibc) then they'd have had an issue or two with certain uses in conjunction with closed source software (e.g. statically linking glibc). I reckon that influences decisions on what to use. Perhaps the best example to fit your comment is JunOS, a closed source, FreeBSD based OS. In Netflix's case, it does seem that they modify some of FreeBSD to fit their use case, and they boast about how they will contribute back to the FreeBSD project any changes that they make. The BSD license does _not_ require them to do so, and who are we to know if they're actually contributing everything back. If they used a GPL'd OS, they might be obliged to do it, but I'm not a lawyer. I don't believe, however, that the license played any part in Netflix's choosing of FreeBSD, and I don't believe that what your comment points out should be considered trolling :)
        cwyers 13y ago
        The GPL wouldn't require Netflix to contribute changes they make to operating systems running on their own servers, either. The GPL says you can't distribute binaries built from modified source without distributing your source modifications, but if you're not distributing binaries, you're really under no obligation to contribute your changes to anyone. If Netflix was using Linux as its server OS, it could keep its changes to itself simply by not distributing Netflix Linux to anyone outside Netflix.
        rakoo 13y ago
        To bring things a little bit further, this specificity (not having to redistribute the code when using it as a service) is precisely why AGPL[0] exists: if Netflix were to use AGPL code, and I were to use Netflix services, then I could claim the source code of the service under AGPL. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affero_General_Public_License https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affero_General_Public_License
  - ams6110 13y ago
    Netflix is declining. Their selection of movies available for streaming has been steadily losing mainstream, popular titles. Now it's mostly B movies and kids shows. Probably the main thing keeping it going are the few popular television series that they still have (Breaking Bad, etc.); I can't remember the last time I actually watched one of their movies.
    - EricDeb 13y ago
      The documentaries on both Amazon prime and Netflix instant are awesome though - the only thing I watch instantly that's part of the free collection.
    - warfangle 13y ago
      Their forays into original programming are pretty amazing (House of Cards, et al).
    - km3k 13y ago
      A lot of kids shows had a mass exodus to Amazon a few months ago. So they don't even have those anymore.
- smacktoward 13y ago
  So much of what is celebrated as "innovation" these days involves taking something open and using it to build something closed that it almost feels unfair to call Netflix out for doing the same. (Almost.)
- gwu78 13y ago
  This is where you usually see some silly comment like "Because the majority of users cannot use a command line and will never use FreeBSD." Of course that majority will also never be given a choice. Sony PlayStation users are using FreeBSD. I doubt they will complain. Imagine, for the purposes of a thought experiment, a majority of users would be receptive to using FreeBSD. Imagine that instead of staring at a screen that says "Buffering...", the user could transfer files to the her home computer with something as simple as: tnftp -o /home/netflix/nextmovieinqueue.mp4 ftp://netflixftpserverlocatedatisp.netflix.com/requestedmovie.mp4 And when the download completes, the user could serve the video to the devices that are connected to her WiFi router: tcpserver -vRHDl0 192.168.2.0 80 bozohttpd -snX /home/netflix And then she accesses the file as she would any video on the www, by pointing her web browser/http client at http://192.168.2.0/nextmovieinqueue.mp4 http://192.168.2.0/nextmovieinqueue.mp4 In this imaginary scenario, how could "DRM" be implemented without forcing the customer to use a particular OS, browser or video player, or some other closed source program? Could it be done?
  - lstamour 13y ago
    Um, if PS4 has netflix support and PS4 runs FreeBSD then ... you can, in fact, access Netflix on FreeBSD? ;-)
  - vezzy-fnord 13y ago
    Except that's just a fantasy scenario and not how Netflix actually works or would work on FreeBSD. The problem is there is no port of Silverlight with the necessary DRM. The latter is unethical in the context of free software. However, from what I've read, Netflix intend on switching fully to HTML5 in the near future. This will make their platform OS-agnostic, while still benefiting from things like Encrypted Media Extensions (EME).
    - chongli 13y ago
      How is an open source browser like Firefox supposed to implement Encrypted Media Extensions without leaking the keys to anyone who decides to grab the source code?
- dubcanada 13y ago
  They are trying really hard to push HTML5 forward. And that will let them do such things. They are stuck, the movie people want DRM, but nothing really exists on Linux for such. So they had to go with Silvershit.
  - josteink 13y ago
    they are pressing for html with drm so Linux and friends will still be left out with no viable legal options.
    - trippy_biscuits 13y ago
      BSD vs GPL was already mentioned. Perhaps now we can discuss how DRM only hurts paying customers of protected content? Oh, you bought access to some licensed content? Great! Thank you. As a reward we will now severely limit how you consume the good or service.
javindo 13y ago
[s]I may have misinterpreted this, but to me it seems as though all this provides is two things: 1) Netflix get some technology for free from which they can profit and 2) Netflix get to boast about using free/open software. I think instead of a page thanking FreeBSD for software, Netflix, alongside many other large companies who use free software, could make more of an effort to actually contribute to the software proportionally to their use of it.[/s] I apologise, clearly I had misinterpreted it and was wrong!
- sliverstorm 13y ago
  I presume you mean monetary contributions? Netflix of course will not have developers with OS expertise. Edit: wow, I'm really getting reamed for this comment.
  - ushi 13y ago
    They could hire a FreeBSD hacker and let him/her code all day long on the OS.
    - cperciva 13y ago
      They have done that, more than once.
    - skreuzer 13y ago
      They actually have several developers on staff and most of the work they are doing ends up getting committed back to head
  - jeffdavis 13y ago
    From the link: "We will contribute changes we make as part of our project to the community through the FreeBSD committers on our team."
- Sanddancer 13y ago
  They do contribute money, and developers to FreeBSD. They send patches, they sponsor the FreeBSD Foundation directly, they sponsor developer conferences, and they work with companies like Intel and Supermicro and LSI to make FreeBSD more awesome. This is a page for their content delivery appliance package, and it's not really an appropriate place to discuss all the stuff that Netflix does for FreeBSD.
kbar13 13y ago
When are people gonna shake the false impression that *BSD are outdated and their flavor of Debuntu is far superior?
- dethstar 13y ago
  Too bad those mods/upgrades/updates are not free software?
  - mathgladiator 13y ago
    I'm curious as to what you mean by this since it does not compute.
  - Sanddancer 13y ago
    They are. Most companies using BSD-licensed software realize that it just makes sense to not release contributions back to the community. Having to backport whenever a new release comes out just to hide a couple shiny features quickly becomes very much not worth it. Netflix in particular is a major contributor in code, cash, and community, so saying the mods aren't free software is utter ignorance. The meme that only restrictively-licensed free software gets people to contribute back has frankly been debunked from here to mars and back.
    - xradionut 13y ago
      How many companies have contributed to help OpenSSH??? Damn few.
      - clarry 13y ago
        How many companies have made changes worth contributing back, but decided to keep to themselves? That'd be interesting to know.
      - ams6110 13y ago
        RedHat contributed their ssh-ldap-helper to allow ssh to effectively use an LDAP server as its authorized_keys source.
ultimoo 13y ago
And on the other end of the spectrum, they require you have Microsoft Silverlight available to your browser.
- hrkristian 13y ago
  Thankfully, there are easily installable Wine ports so it isn't really a problem. Netflix does not seem interested in enforcing their "Linux (/*BSD) ban"[1], I can even use a desktop recorder to rip straight from Netflix if I wanted which essentially makes it a "take what you want" service. [1] http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/02/netflix-no-plans-to-support-linux http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/02/netflix-no-plans-to-suppo...
waps 13y ago
Juniper routers, the most used routing equipment after cisco, runs on FreeBSD. So everything on the internet effectively uses FreeBSD. The same goes for VxWorks, and IOS (the cisco one).
- happywolf 13y ago
  The company that owns VxWorks, Wind River System, did involve in BSD circa 2000, and the most can be said is early VxWorks did share some lineage with BSD Unix, but ever since VxWorks has been switched to WIND kernel, I doubt we can really put these two OSes in the same group.
  - pstuart 13y ago
    Now owned by Intel.
- kristoffer 13y ago
  Not sure what you mean, but VxWorks is not based on FreeBSD.
- smnv 13y ago
  Newer Cisco IOS versions (IOS XE for example) are running as a process in linux. Old IOSes were linux-based too. Don't mix up Cisco IOS with Apple iOS (which has roots in BSD).
  - stock_toaster 13y ago
    huh. I thought they were using a QNX based one on the new stuff.
    - jauer 13y ago
      Plain old IOS is a monolithic program and tends to be used in older routers and current small-to-medium routers & modern spins of older product lines. IOS XR runs on QNX and tends to be used on routers in a carrier role. IOS XE runs on Linux and tends to be used on service/aggregation routers.
justincormack 13y ago
There was a good talk about this at EuroBSDcon but the video does not seem to be available or the slides. Running the Netflix Video CDN on FreeBSD and Handling 30% of all US Internet Traffic by Alistair Crooks.
gprasanth 13y ago
And they were sponsors at EuroBSD conference this year too.
Twirrim 13y ago
That's interesting. Only about a year and a half ago when there was the leap second fun that disrupted so many people they were running on CentOS 5 (and so weren't affected): https://twitter.com/adrianco/status/219238574552387586 https://twitter.com/adrianco/status/219238574552387586
- justincormack 13y ago
  The Centos part is the control layer that runs on AWS that people talk about mostly. The BSD part is the actual video streaming.
silverwizard 13y ago
Ummm, it's a DRM, not technical issue. The DRM is imposed upon them by content creators. In theory, FreeBSD could get a moonlight port, then try to license the keys used for the DRM, but unfortunately, this is likely a deal breaker for Netflix. Also the FreeBSD project has to do the work, Netflix can't, since they can negotiate a contract on behalf of FreeBSD.
- ams6110 13y ago
  Moonlight is open source. Netflix could port the DRM if they wanted to; FreeBSD would not need to do it. by my read of the CC license they'd have to contribute that back to the project, but I'd guess they could then negotiate the licensing of the keys; keys are not code so I don't see any more problem with that than using your own keys in e.g. GnuPG. So few people use *BSD as a desktop that the demand for it is not going to make it happen, however.
  - elq 13y ago
    > Netflix could port the DRM if they wanted to I'm pretty sure the DRM used in the Netflix silverlight player is Microsoft's "PlayReady", so no... Netflix can't port it if they want.
kraemate 13y ago
I'm confused, doesn't Netflix use AWS for all their servers? AFAIK you can't run FreeBSD on EC2 without significant challenges.
- misframer 13y ago
  There are a few AMIs available: http://www.daemonology.net/freebsd-on-ec2/ http://www.daemonology.net/freebsd-on-ec2/
- philjohn 13y ago
  I believe these are the boxes you can install if you're an ISP to cache the most popular content - hence the talk of 100TB of hard drives etc.
- mvip 13y ago
  Yes, this if for their CDN/edge system. They run their cloud architecture on EC2. There was a very interesting talk about this on EuroBSDCon (http://2013.eurobsdcon.org/eurobsdcon-2013/talks/#AlistairCrooks http://2013.eurobsdcon.org/eurobsdcon-2013/talks/#AlistairCr...), but I can't seem to find the video.
atmosx 13y ago
The first time I've scrolled through the title I've read: Netflix uses NetBSD and I thought that's strange. When I had to re-read the title and realized it was using FreeBSD I wasn't that surprised. FreeBSD is a natural choice if you want stability, even over Linux. I enjoy their update scheme although the lack of an official 'pkg' repository gives in to my nerves. So, why is this news, is beyond me... ps. I see a lot of people complaining that they use an open platform (FreeBSD in this case) to create a closed product. If I'm not mistaken (I'm not a US citizen and Netflix doesn't work in my country) it's a media-content rental service. So what exactly is the open source alternative, www.PirateFlixbay.org? :-)
- gwu78 13y ago
  "... and I thought that's strange." Why? I believe the leader of their core group works for Netflix.
  - atmosx 13y ago
    Because is the unpopular choice. I almost never came across someone using NetBSD, except myself 10 years ago.
- brokenparser 13y ago
  I read it as "Freeflix uses NetBSD 9.0" (and wondered how they got at 9.0 so quickly) but that's probably just me.
toddan 13y ago
I am curious on what kind of software they are running with nginx on freeBSD or is all the video content just raw video files that their client software directs to?
greenlakejake 13y ago
> GNU has a concept of freedom that it tries to protect via the GPL. Licenses like the BSD or MIT do not. BSD and MIT are trying to protect their own concept of freedom.

161 points by auvi 13y ago

From June 2012, more information at: http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2012-June/068129.html http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2012-June/...

kev009 13y ago

At vBSDCon Scott Long announced they'd been tracking -CURRENT for over a month, so assume they're already on 10-STABLE in a lot of places. Some good details on the OCA http://people.freebsd.org/~scottl/Netflix-BSDCan-20130515.pdf http://people.freebsd.org/~scottl/Netflix-BSDCan-20130515.pd...

vezzy-fnord 13y ago

Yet you can't actually use Netflix on FreeBSD.

cperciva 13y ago
Between the two, I'd rather use FreeBSD than Netflix.
- donniezazen 13y ago
  That's what I think Netflix is not even a global thing. While projects like FreeBSD and Linux will keep the platform open for next big thing.
  - lstamour 13y ago
    You may be a bit confused. GNU keeps things open. FreeBSD and/or Linux ... well, I don't mean to troll. :)
    - eyko 13y ago
      I don't consider that trolling, just statement of fact. But I guess it depends on what each person considers free. GNU has a concept of freedom that it tries to protect via the GPL. Licenses like the BSD or MIT do not. Personally, I think this licensing difference is what makes companies use code from one but not the other. E.g. Apple's Darwin and it's kernel (XNU) contains code from BSD. While Darwin is "open source", it acts as the core/foundation of a closed source OS. Had they used a GNU kernel like Linux, or GNU libraries (glibc) then they'd have had an issue or two with certain uses in conjunction with closed source software (e.g. statically linking glibc). I reckon that influences decisions on what to use. Perhaps the best example to fit your comment is JunOS, a closed source, FreeBSD based OS. In Netflix's case, it does seem that they modify some of FreeBSD to fit their use case, and they boast about how they will contribute back to the FreeBSD project any changes that they make. The BSD license does _not_ require them to do so, and who are we to know if they're actually contributing everything back. If they used a GPL'd OS, they might be obliged to do it, but I'm not a lawyer. I don't believe, however, that the license played any part in Netflix's choosing of FreeBSD, and I don't believe that what your comment points out should be considered trolling :)
      - cwyers 13y ago
        The GPL wouldn't require Netflix to contribute changes they make to operating systems running on their own servers, either. The GPL says you can't distribute binaries built from modified source without distributing your source modifications, but if you're not distributing binaries, you're really under no obligation to contribute your changes to anyone. If Netflix was using Linux as its server OS, it could keep its changes to itself simply by not distributing Netflix Linux to anyone outside Netflix.
        rakoo 13y ago
        To bring things a little bit further, this specificity (not having to redistribute the code when using it as a service) is precisely why AGPL[0] exists: if Netflix were to use AGPL code, and I were to use Netflix services, then I could claim the source code of the service under AGPL. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affero_General_Public_License https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affero_General_Public_License
- ams6110 13y ago
  Netflix is declining. Their selection of movies available for streaming has been steadily losing mainstream, popular titles. Now it's mostly B movies and kids shows. Probably the main thing keeping it going are the few popular television series that they still have (Breaking Bad, etc.); I can't remember the last time I actually watched one of their movies.
  - EricDeb 13y ago
    The documentaries on both Amazon prime and Netflix instant are awesome though - the only thing I watch instantly that's part of the free collection.
  - warfangle 13y ago
    Their forays into original programming are pretty amazing (House of Cards, et al).
  - km3k 13y ago
    A lot of kids shows had a mass exodus to Amazon a few months ago. So they don't even have those anymore.
smacktoward 13y ago
So much of what is celebrated as "innovation" these days involves taking something open and using it to build something closed that it almost feels unfair to call Netflix out for doing the same. (Almost.)
gwu78 13y ago
This is where you usually see some silly comment like "Because the majority of users cannot use a command line and will never use FreeBSD." Of course that majority will also never be given a choice. Sony PlayStation users are using FreeBSD. I doubt they will complain. Imagine, for the purposes of a thought experiment, a majority of users would be receptive to using FreeBSD. Imagine that instead of staring at a screen that says "Buffering...", the user could transfer files to the her home computer with something as simple as: tnftp -o /home/netflix/nextmovieinqueue.mp4 ftp://netflixftpserverlocatedatisp.netflix.com/requestedmovie.mp4 And when the download completes, the user could serve the video to the devices that are connected to her WiFi router: tcpserver -vRHDl0 192.168.2.0 80 bozohttpd -snX /home/netflix And then she accesses the file as she would any video on the www, by pointing her web browser/http client at http://192.168.2.0/nextmovieinqueue.mp4 http://192.168.2.0/nextmovieinqueue.mp4 In this imaginary scenario, how could "DRM" be implemented without forcing the customer to use a particular OS, browser or video player, or some other closed source program? Could it be done?
- lstamour 13y ago
  Um, if PS4 has netflix support and PS4 runs FreeBSD then ... you can, in fact, access Netflix on FreeBSD? ;-)
- vezzy-fnord 13y ago
  Except that's just a fantasy scenario and not how Netflix actually works or would work on FreeBSD. The problem is there is no port of Silverlight with the necessary DRM. The latter is unethical in the context of free software. However, from what I've read, Netflix intend on switching fully to HTML5 in the near future. This will make their platform OS-agnostic, while still benefiting from things like Encrypted Media Extensions (EME).
  - chongli 13y ago
    How is an open source browser like Firefox supposed to implement Encrypted Media Extensions without leaking the keys to anyone who decides to grab the source code?
dubcanada 13y ago
They are trying really hard to push HTML5 forward. And that will let them do such things. They are stuck, the movie people want DRM, but nothing really exists on Linux for such. So they had to go with Silvershit.
- josteink 13y ago
  they are pressing for html with drm so Linux and friends will still be left out with no viable legal options.
  - trippy_biscuits 13y ago
    BSD vs GPL was already mentioned. Perhaps now we can discuss how DRM only hurts paying customers of protected content? Oh, you bought access to some licensed content? Great! Thank you. As a reward we will now severely limit how you consume the good or service.

javindo 13y ago

[s]I may have misinterpreted this, but to me it seems as though all this provides is two things: 1) Netflix get some technology for free from which they can profit and 2) Netflix get to boast about using free/open software. I think instead of a page thanking FreeBSD for software, Netflix, alongside many other large companies who use free software, could make more of an effort to actually contribute to the software proportionally to their use of it.[/s] I apologise, clearly I had misinterpreted it and was wrong!

sliverstorm 13y ago
I presume you mean monetary contributions? Netflix of course will not have developers with OS expertise. Edit: wow, I'm really getting reamed for this comment.
- ushi 13y ago
  They could hire a FreeBSD hacker and let him/her code all day long on the OS.
  - cperciva 13y ago
    They have done that, more than once.
  - skreuzer 13y ago
    They actually have several developers on staff and most of the work they are doing ends up getting committed back to head
- jeffdavis 13y ago
  From the link: "We will contribute changes we make as part of our project to the community through the FreeBSD committers on our team."
Sanddancer 13y ago
They do contribute money, and developers to FreeBSD. They send patches, they sponsor the FreeBSD Foundation directly, they sponsor developer conferences, and they work with companies like Intel and Supermicro and LSI to make FreeBSD more awesome. This is a page for their content delivery appliance package, and it's not really an appropriate place to discuss all the stuff that Netflix does for FreeBSD.

kbar13 13y ago

When are people gonna shake the false impression that *BSD are outdated and their flavor of Debuntu is far superior?

dethstar 13y ago
Too bad those mods/upgrades/updates are not free software?
- mathgladiator 13y ago
  I'm curious as to what you mean by this since it does not compute.
- Sanddancer 13y ago
  They are. Most companies using BSD-licensed software realize that it just makes sense to not release contributions back to the community. Having to backport whenever a new release comes out just to hide a couple shiny features quickly becomes very much not worth it. Netflix in particular is a major contributor in code, cash, and community, so saying the mods aren't free software is utter ignorance. The meme that only restrictively-licensed free software gets people to contribute back has frankly been debunked from here to mars and back.
  - xradionut 13y ago
    How many companies have contributed to help OpenSSH??? Damn few.
    - clarry 13y ago
      How many companies have made changes worth contributing back, but decided to keep to themselves? That'd be interesting to know.
    - ams6110 13y ago
      RedHat contributed their ssh-ldap-helper to allow ssh to effectively use an LDAP server as its authorized_keys source.

ultimoo 13y ago

And on the other end of the spectrum, they require you have Microsoft Silverlight available to your browser.

hrkristian 13y ago
Thankfully, there are easily installable Wine ports so it isn't really a problem. Netflix does not seem interested in enforcing their "Linux (/*BSD) ban"[1], I can even use a desktop recorder to rip straight from Netflix if I wanted which essentially makes it a "take what you want" service. [1] http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/02/netflix-no-plans-to-support-linux http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/02/netflix-no-plans-to-suppo...

waps 13y ago

Juniper routers, the most used routing equipment after cisco, runs on FreeBSD. So everything on the internet effectively uses FreeBSD. The same goes for VxWorks, and IOS (the cisco one).

happywolf 13y ago
The company that owns VxWorks, Wind River System, did involve in BSD circa 2000, and the most can be said is early VxWorks did share some lineage with BSD Unix, but ever since VxWorks has been switched to WIND kernel, I doubt we can really put these two OSes in the same group.
- pstuart 13y ago
  Now owned by Intel.
kristoffer 13y ago
Not sure what you mean, but VxWorks is not based on FreeBSD.
smnv 13y ago
Newer Cisco IOS versions (IOS XE for example) are running as a process in linux. Old IOSes were linux-based too. Don't mix up Cisco IOS with Apple iOS (which has roots in BSD).
- stock_toaster 13y ago
  huh. I thought they were using a QNX based one on the new stuff.
  - jauer 13y ago
    Plain old IOS is a monolithic program and tends to be used in older routers and current small-to-medium routers & modern spins of older product lines. IOS XR runs on QNX and tends to be used on routers in a carrier role. IOS XE runs on Linux and tends to be used on service/aggregation routers.

justincormack 13y ago

There was a good talk about this at EuroBSDcon but the video does not seem to be available or the slides. Running the Netflix Video CDN on FreeBSD and Handling 30% of all US Internet Traffic by Alistair Crooks.

gprasanth 13y ago

And they were sponsors at EuroBSD conference this year too.

Twirrim 13y ago

That's interesting. Only about a year and a half ago when there was the leap second fun that disrupted so many people they were running on CentOS 5 (and so weren't affected): https://twitter.com/adrianco/status/219238574552387586 https://twitter.com/adrianco/status/219238574552387586

justincormack 13y ago
The Centos part is the control layer that runs on AWS that people talk about mostly. The BSD part is the actual video streaming.

silverwizard 13y ago

Ummm, it's a DRM, not technical issue. The DRM is imposed upon them by content creators. In theory, FreeBSD could get a moonlight port, then try to license the keys used for the DRM, but unfortunately, this is likely a deal breaker for Netflix. Also the FreeBSD project has to do the work, Netflix can't, since they can negotiate a contract on behalf of FreeBSD.

ams6110 13y ago
Moonlight is open source. Netflix could port the DRM if they wanted to; FreeBSD would not need to do it. by my read of the CC license they'd have to contribute that back to the project, but I'd guess they could then negotiate the licensing of the keys; keys are not code so I don't see any more problem with that than using your own keys in e.g. GnuPG. So few people use *BSD as a desktop that the demand for it is not going to make it happen, however.
- elq 13y ago
  > Netflix could port the DRM if they wanted to I'm pretty sure the DRM used in the Netflix silverlight player is Microsoft's "PlayReady", so no... Netflix can't port it if they want.

kraemate 13y ago

I'm confused, doesn't Netflix use AWS for all their servers? AFAIK you can't run FreeBSD on EC2 without significant challenges.

misframer 13y ago
There are a few AMIs available: http://www.daemonology.net/freebsd-on-ec2/ http://www.daemonology.net/freebsd-on-ec2/
philjohn 13y ago
I believe these are the boxes you can install if you're an ISP to cache the most popular content - hence the talk of 100TB of hard drives etc.
mvip 13y ago
Yes, this if for their CDN/edge system. They run their cloud architecture on EC2. There was a very interesting talk about this on EuroBSDCon (http://2013.eurobsdcon.org/eurobsdcon-2013/talks/#AlistairCrooks http://2013.eurobsdcon.org/eurobsdcon-2013/talks/#AlistairCr...), but I can't seem to find the video.

atmosx 13y ago

The first time I've scrolled through the title I've read: Netflix uses NetBSD and I thought that's strange. When I had to re-read the title and realized it was using FreeBSD I wasn't that surprised. FreeBSD is a natural choice if you want stability, even over Linux. I enjoy their update scheme although the lack of an official 'pkg' repository gives in to my nerves. So, why is this news, is beyond me... ps. I see a lot of people complaining that they use an open platform (FreeBSD in this case) to create a closed product. If I'm not mistaken (I'm not a US citizen and Netflix doesn't work in my country) it's a media-content rental service. So what exactly is the open source alternative, www.PirateFlixbay.org? :-)

gwu78 13y ago
"... and I thought that's strange." Why? I believe the leader of their core group works for Netflix.
- atmosx 13y ago
  Because is the unpopular choice. I almost never came across someone using NetBSD, except myself 10 years ago.
brokenparser 13y ago
I read it as "Freeflix uses NetBSD 9.0" (and wondered how they got at 9.0 so quickly) but that's probably just me.

toddan 13y ago

I am curious on what kind of software they are running with nginx on freeBSD or is all the video content just raw video files that their client software directs to?

greenlakejake 13y ago

> GNU has a concept of freedom that it tries to protect via the GPL. Licenses like the BSD or MIT do not. BSD and MIT are trying to protect their own concept of freedom.