I get a fair amount of e-mail from readers asking how a person could do "questionable" things due to limitations imposed by DRM. Whether it's how to strip DRM from ebooks, how to connect to Usenet or how to decrypt video, I do my best to point folks in the right direction with lots of warnings and disclaimers. The most frustrating DRM by far has been with Blu-ray discs.

Unless I've missed an announcement, there still isn't a "proper" way for Linux users to watch Blu-ray movies on their computers. It's hard enough with Windows or Macintosh, but when it comes to Linux, it seems that turning to the dark side is the only option. In the spirit of freedom, let me point you in the direction of "how", and leave it up to you to decide whether it's a road you want to travel.

When ripping a movie from Blu-ray, I know of only one program that can do the job. MakeMKV is a cross-platform utility that will extract the full, uncompressed movie from most Blu-ray discs. Unfortunately, you have to download the source code and compile it. You need both the binaries and the source download files, and then follow the included directions for compiling the software. Yes, it's a bit complex.

Once you compile MakeMKV, you should be able to use it to extract the Blu-ray disc to your computer. Be warned, the file is enormous, and you'll most likely want to compress it a bit. The tool for that thankfully is much easier to install. Handbrake has been the de facto standard video encoding app for a long time, and when paired with MakeMKV, it makes creating playable video files close to painless. I won't go through the step-by-step process, but if the legally questionable act of ripping a Blu-ray disc is something you're comfortable doing, http://www.makemkv.com and http://www.handbrake.fr are the two software packages you'll want to explore.