Linux not supported? Very frustrating...

[mcmccreadie]

My family and i have been with xfinity/comcast for longer than I remember, So when I fired up my new fresh built linux Home theater PC I was very dissapointed to see that I can not even use the servers that I pay for. I have seen other post on here asking about this, and have seen xfinity reps reply and say that they are not planning on supporting any Linux OS, My question is why? If you can access the stream platform from just about any other device, on any onther web browser, why not linux? the customers have been asking for the support for years now and it makes no logical sence not to support it.

[Rustyben]

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@mcmccreadie wrote:

My family and i have been with xfinity/comcast for longer than I remember, So when I fired up my new fresh built linux Home theater PC I was very dissapointed to see that I can not even use the servers that I pay for. I have seen other post on here asking about this, and have seen xfinity reps reply and say that they are not planning on supporting any Linux OS, My question is why? If you can access the stream platform from just about any other device, on any onther web browser, why not linux? the customers have been asking for the support for years now and it makes no logical sence not to support it.

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at the current time, *nix is not suppported. note that updated chromebooks do work with the  built in chrome browser.

[Okamikaze]

I agree. I've asked this in the past as well. There is also an abundance of archived posts on this which appear to no longer be visible. This is NOT good customer service. These posts should be allowed to stay around so that they eventually gather enough support. Linux is used as a primary OS by many millions of people! Why is it so neglected? Very frustrating indeed! 😭

[Circlestrafe999]

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@Okamikaze wrote:

I agree. I've asked this in the past as well. There is also an abundance of archived posts on this which appear to no longer be visible. This is NOT good customer service. These posts should be allowed to stay around so that they eventually gather enough support. Linux is used as a primary OS by many millions of people! Why is it so neglected? Very frustrating indeed! 😭

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Because it is not used by millions of people.  This is also the claim by about a half dozen people on the Steam gaming platform.  When you actually look at the data, rather than throw out completely random numbers, you see that less than 1/10th of 1 percent of all users on that platform, run the client on Linux.  So, since only hundreds of people use Linux as the primary OS, it is safe to assume Linux support is extremely low priority.  

[kendalla59]

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@Circlestrafe999 wrote:

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@Okamikaze wrote:

I agree. I've asked this in the past as well. There is also an abundance of archived posts on this which appear to no longer be visible. This is NOT good customer service. These posts should be allowed to stay around so that they eventually gather enough support. Linux is used as a primary OS by many millions of people! Why is it so neglected? Very frustrating indeed! 😭

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Because it is not used by millions of people.  This is also the claim by about a half dozen people on the Steam gaming platform.  When you actually look at the data, rather than throw out completely random numbers, you see that less than 1/10th of 1 percent of all users on that platform, run the client on Linux.  So, since only hundreds of people use Linux as the primary OS, it is safe to assume Linux support is extremely low priority.  

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The problem, however, is that Xfinity Stream actively prevents Linux users from accessing content. Those who know what they're doing can work around the roadblocks that Comcast has put in place but that seems ridiculous. They could easily change the error message to warning... "YOU ARE RUNNING LINUX - THIS IS NOT SUPPORTED - USE AT YOUR OWN RISK". Then if it doesn't work they don't need to worry about answering support questions. Linux users are pretty darn good at supporting each other, so I think it would be fine.

From what I've read, Comcast needs to port their streaming service to HTML5. There are a ton of problems using Flash, even without the concerns about getting it working on Linux. Perhaps once they have full HTML5 support they'll remove the artificial barriers?

[kendalla59]

I get it. Comcast isn't ready yet to support Linux systems for Xfinity Stream. Fine.

But why are you ACTIVELY blocking Linux users from accessing their online content? People have been working around the artificial barriers for years and apparently Comcast is responding by making the barriers harder to get around. WHY?!!

[Rustyben]

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@kendalla59 wrote:

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@Circlestrafe999 wrote:

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@Okamikaze wrote:

I agree. I've asked this in the past as well. There is also an abundance of archived posts on this which appear to no longer be visible. This is NOT good customer service. These posts should be allowed to stay around so that they eventually gather enough support. Linux is used as a primary OS by many millions of people! Why is it so neglected? Very frustrating indeed! 😭

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Because it is not used by millions of people.  This is also the claim by about a half dozen people on the Steam gaming platform.  When you actually look at the data, rather than throw out completely random numbers, you see that less than 1/10th of 1 percent of all users on that platform, run the client on Linux.  So, since only hundreds of people use Linux as the primary OS, it is safe to assume Linux support is extremely low priority.  

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The problem, however, is that Xfinity Stream actively prevents Linux users from accessing content. Those who know what they're doing can work around the roadblocks that Comcast has put in place but that seems ridiculous. They could easily change the error message to warning... "YOU ARE RUNNING LINUX - THIS IS NOT SUPPORTED - USE AT YOUR OWN RISK". Then if it doesn't work they don't need to worry about answering support questions. Linux users are pretty darn good at supporting each other, so I think it would be fine.

From what I've read, Comcast needs to port their streaming service to HTML5. There are a ton of problems using Flash, even without the concerns about getting it working on Linux. Perhaps once they have full HTML5 support they'll remove the artificial barriers?

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flash is/was used only to verify that the HD video remained encrypted end to end and can not be intercepted/copied. The *nix is not currently supported in the verification solution approved.

edit: combined your duplicate subject posts.

[DarkkWizard]

I currently use Linux Mint 19.4 (will be upgrading 20.4 soon) and other streaming providers' apps work without issues when using either Firefox or Chrome.   Flash is an outdated and unsecure app that should have been retired long time ago.  If Comcast want to secure their content then it's something Chrome and Firefox already have signed binaries inside Linux that supports DRM.   Comcast just need to update their servers to support it.

[Rustyben]

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@DarkkWizard wrote:

I currently use Linux Mint 19.4 (will be upgrading 20.4 soon) and other streaming providers' apps work without issues when using either Firefox or Chrome.   Flash is an outdated and unsecure app that should have been retired long time ago.  If Comcast want to secure their content then it's something Chrome and Firefox already have signed binaries inside Linux that supports DRM.   Comcast just need to update their servers to support it.

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currently the *nix operating system is not supported no matter the browser.

[jamescasualty]

and i just made a new post about this and they removed it... if it works on chromebooks, why the heck wont it work on chrome on linux? that makes no sense at all!