Netflix on Arch Linux (or Linux in general)

UPDATE: 
You don't need an unstable version of Chrome to play Netflix streamed media anymore. Simply download the latest stable version of Chrome.
Note that Chromium (it is exactly the same as Chrome, minus features such as syncing using a Google account and proprietary plugins) does not support the widevine and thus cannot play Netflix content.

Original article:

Netflix has thrown away its Microsoft Silverlight interface and is now using HTML5 to stream its content.

Well, almost. Not surprisingly, the videos are still encrypted and DRM'd. It is done using a plugin developed by Widevine Technologies (a Google company).
Chromium is the open-source part of the Google Chrome browser (everything but the Google branding, the syncing mechanism with the Google account and a few plugins, is open source). So nowadays you'll often find the Chromium browser on Linux distributions.

The Widevine plugin is not included in Chromium for licensing reasons, yet you would expect to be able to install it anyway. There seems to be people working on that but I couldn't make it work.

What worked for me is this:

1) Install google-chrome-dev from AUR. The reason you need the unstable version is that you need a very recent version (42+) and that you need a Google-branded browser including the Widevine plugin.
yaourt google-chrome-dev
2) Launch it with the google-chrome-unstable command.
3) Open Netflix and check if it works.
4) If it doesn't work, make sure the Widevine plugin is installed and working. Type chrome://plugins and possibly chrome://components in the address bar and check it is enabled.


Also, check out this cool browser extension Flix Plus from Lifehacker. I find it very useful!

I have to say I am impressed by this company from a business and technological point of view. Did you know they release a lot of their code with an open source license? Did you know they don't manage any hardware but rely heavily on Amazon for their computing and storage needs?
There is a trend nowadays, except for a few giants like Facebook, for most companies to transition from managing their own hardware and storage to have it them hosted by platforms such as Amazon AWS, Heroku, GitHub, Bitbucket, Microsoft Azure and other online services.
In many IT companies, there's no server room anymore, except for switches and routers, as file servers and other tools are physically located outside the company in data centers.