Are you an Ubuntu user that is frustrated with the lack of Silverlight support on Ubuntu? You’re in luck! This guide will teach you a trick that you can do to get Silverlight support right in your native Linux browser with Pipelight! Let’s get started!

Before We Begin

This guide will be making use of Pipelight, a plugin that brings Microsoft Silverlight to Linux.

Pipelight is able to work on other Linux distributions, but the process covered in this guide is specific to Ubuntu; it will work on all versions of Ubuntu.

Pipelight has been confirmed to work pretty much flawlessly with Netflix, Maxdome and Sumo 2.

Load this guide on your mobile device, if you have a browser open while this plugin installs, it could fail to install properly.

How To Install Microsoft Silverlight On Ubuntu

To install Microsoft Silverlight on Ubuntu, do the following:

• To get Pipelight working we’re going to need to install two different PPAs. To enable these PPAs, we need to enter some terminal commands. Search for ‘terminal’ in the Unity dash and open it. Once the terminal window has opened, enter the commands below.

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ehoover/compholio
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:mqchael/pipelight

• Once both of the PPAs have been enabled, you’ll need to update your software sources. Do this by entering the command below in your terminal.

sudo apt-get update

• After software sources have been updated, we can finally install the plugin to your system. Enter the command below into your terminal to install Pipelight.

sudo apt-get install pipelight

• Once the installation of Pipelight has finished, open your browser. We’re not done yet, Netflix will not work unless you trick it into thinking that you’re using a Windows PC. In order to do that, a user agent switcher is needed. If you use Firefox install UAControl and select something similar to Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:23.0) Gecko/20131011 Firefox/23.0 in UAControl. If you’re using Chrome/Chromium install User Agent Switcher and select Windows Firefox 15 from User Agent Switcher’s preferences (this can be found by going to the extension page in Chrome/Chromium.

• If you chose not to close your browser while installing the plugin, enter the command below into your terminal and restart your browser.

rm -rf ~/.wine-pipelight/

Done!

Conclusion

Silverlight is a plugin that has long plagued Linux users. Since Silverlight is not available on Linux, sites like Netflix are a no-go. Luckily, Piplelight exists. Now you’re able to enjoy all of your favorite Netflix movies right on your Ubuntu powered PC. Enjoy!