Hulu Labs launches Hulu Desktop for Linux

The Hulu Labs developers have announced the availability of a Linux version of their downloadable native client. Hulu streams various Movies and TV shows over the internet from several networks and studios, including ABC, NBC and Fox, using Flash Video (FLV). However, while originally Hulu was expected to launch in the UK in September of 2009, at present the Hulu service can only be streamed within the United States. This is due to several delays, mostly over signing content deals and a UK launch is not expected until 2010.

The Hulu Desktop downloadable native client allows users to watch programming without using their web browsers and features a '10-foot user interface'. The Linux client also supports input from hundreds of different types of infra-red remotes, using the Linux Infra-red Remote Control (LIRC) package.

The latest release is considered to be at a beta stage of development and requires Adobe Flash Player 9.0.124 or higher. The current Adobe Flash Player for Linux is 10.0.32.18. Library requirements include GLib 2.16 or higher, GTK+ 2.12 or higher and LIRC 0.8.2 or higher for remote control functionality.

Hulu Desktop for Linux is available to download for 32 and 64-bit versions of Fedora 11 and Ubuntu 9.04. These packages are binary only, Hulu Desktop is not open source. The developers note that they plan to expand the set of supported Linux distributions in the future. Hulu Desktop is also available for Windows and Intel Mac OS X systems.

(crve)