Hulu is a website that provides add-supported live streaming services (you know, movies and TV shows) to people who live in the good old US of A. Because starting a web browser to go visit the Hulu web page was a bother to some Windows and Mac OS X users, the development team at Hulu came up with an alternative: a desktop application that gives the user access to all of Hulu’s services on the desktop.

That’s all very nice for the Windows user and the Mac OS X user, but what about an operating system that does not cost money? Something open-source like Linux? Hulu Labs has recently announced it rolled out two new offerings: Publisher Tools and Hulu Desktop for Linux.

Here is how Hulu describes its Hulu Desktop application: “Hulu Desktop is a lean-back viewing experience for your personal computer. It features a sleek new look that's optimized for use with standard Windows Media Center remote controls or Apple remote controls, allowing you to navigate Hulu's entire library with just six buttons. For users without remotes, the application is keyboard and mouse-enabled. Hulu Desktop is a downloadable application and will work on PCs and Macs [and Linux-powered machines].”

You can run Hulu Desktop for Linux if you meet these system requirements:

• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz
• RAM: At least 2.0 GB RAM
• Operating System: Fedora 9, Ubuntu 8.04 or later
• Internet connection: 2Mbps
• Other: Flash 9.0.124

If you would like to get Hulu Desktop for Linux, just click the corresponding link below:

• Fedora 32-bit
• Ubuntu 32-bit
• Fedora 64-bit
• Ubuntu 64-bit

If you plan on accessing Hulu or on using the Hulu Desktop application outside the US, you are out of luck. The online service is available to US residents only, at least for the time being. The Hulu team says it wants to achieve global availability in the future, but for the time being the Hulu web page and the Hulu desktop app are limited to the US of A. You could use a little trick to access it though: change your IP address to fool Hulu into thinking you are in the US.