In a move that I hope is a sign of things to come, Netflix has added a special HTML5 interface to its streaming video survice to support Samsung's ARM-based Chromebook (per Engadget). I hope this is the writing on the wall for Netflix' use of Silverlight but time will tell. This move could also open the door to being able to use Netflix on various Linux flavors and other operating systems like FreeBSD or OpenBSD using Chromium.

I have always liked ARM devices due to their low power usage and, as I previously mentioned, I am very interested in running Ubuntu 13.04 on the ARM Chromebook once it is released on April 25. This new development makes the ARM Chromebook far more interesting for home use. Netflix is the best source of documentaries we have found and being able to play them on a compact device that is relatively inexpensive is a great option.

As another benefit, our daughter enjoys playing some educational web-based games that don't work on an iPad or similar and the ARM Chromebook might just be a good solution for this as well. Using Mommy's MacBook Air while Mommy needs to work doesn't really work out.

It seems that the $249 ARM Chromebook is getting more and more potentially useful.