Do you use the Brave browser on Linux? Make your voice heard to make Widevine support a priority

Linux users of the privacy focused Open Source Brave browser have been asking about Widevine support since at least 2016, but even in the new Chromium based version of Brave that replaced the old Muon (Elecron fork) version, Widevine still isn't supported.

Without Widevine, popular websites like Netflix don't work in the Brave browser since Widevine is needed to play copy protected media.

A new issue to get Widevine working in Brave for Linux was opened on Github on June 22, but nobody from the Brave team has offered any more information about the status of the issue. Until now :)

On Reddit, Brave's CTO wrote:

Not being worked on right now but interest is noted.

Quite a short and cold statement after Linux users have been waiting for years.

But a few hours later a much more diplomatic message followed, Brave_Support wrote:

We're very aware of Linux users plight/desire to have this installed finally.

I'm going to add this thread to the GH issue and +1 on your behalf.

Right now, our main focus (taking up a vast majority of dev resources) right now is completing and shipping Brave Rewards and Brave Sync. As unfortunate as it is, many other open issues/request have to be set on the back burner while we work through this period of heavy development on two of Brave's biggest features.

We apologize for the inconvenience. Not sure how much it helps, but I will personally request that this issue get bumped in priority given the amount of attention it's garnered.

Really appreciate everyone's patience on this.

On Github in the Brave issue tracker, Brave-Matt wrote:

While I'm very aware of the workload/time constraints we're currently under, I think this particular issue necessitates a priority reevaluation. Users frequently ask about this - both requesting the feature be implemented or an update on it's progress - and haven't been given any information surrounding it.

Sadly, a few hours later rebron wrote:

Don't have any new updates to share. We definitely acknowledge the feature request, others on the team have seen it as well. We see the number of requests for it. We don't have plans right now to get to this issue in the near term weighted against other feature requests.

The more feedback we get from more people, we'll of course re-evaluate.

But the last line is the hope now, so if you do use Brave on Linux and want Widevine support so that websites like Netflix work in Brave, make your voice heard on Reddit and/or Github by adding your upvote there, so that the issue finally becomes a priority for Brave.

Note: On Github you can just click on the "thumbs up" emoji to upvote the issue, replying with "+1" comments is frowned upon since it spams the email account of anyone who follows the issue.