Netflix will not run on your Linux desktop because Microsoft refuses to issue licenses for its DRM components for Moonlight/Linux desktop. These components run fine on Linux -- look at Boxee et al -- but Microsoft refuses to license the DRM for use on Linux desktops. While I would have thought the spite would run deep enough to encourage a clean room implementation of MS's DRM, I guess most people just don't care since there are so many alternate vehicles that require less work for the same content.

Except Netflix is dropping the Silverlie plugin support for their own plugin that DRMs for HTML5 video capable browsers.

Chromebooks already have a beta version of this, and Chrome will ship with the plugin on all platforms eventually.

Why is that "except"? It doesn't have anything to do with what I said, really. You could say, "Not for long! Netflix is dropping the Siverlight plugin..." or something like that.

To be fair, I never said I was eloquent.

Is there a successful (and by that, I mean not entirely useless) DRM system for Linux? I would imagine that MS would not want to provide the source for their DRM component for fear of it being broken.

Is there a successful DRM system for anything? Again, I think the DRM that remains unbroken is unbroken because there's no point in cracking it. MS's PlayReady protects music and movies, so there's no reason to crack it since you can just rip the DVD/CD instead.

I don't think the argument that their DRM is exposed to a lot more risk by presence on desktop Linux is legitimate. Someone can break it on Windows or Mac without much extra effort if they cared to break it.

I believe that Flash's DRM is supported on Linux. (Of course, it also has fundamental security flaws, but those are unrelated to the Linux support.)