14 DAY TRIAL // OpenELEC, an embedded operating system built specifically to run the Kodi media player hub and to run on most available hardware, has received an important update and it's getting closer to the final version.
The OpenELEC operating system is now using the new Kodi media hub, which is the new name for the old XBMC. Because Kodi is still being worked on, the OpenELEC project has no choice but to wait for the final version. The devs are always using the latest Kodi (XBMC version) in their releases, so it's understandable why there is a waiting period.
This particular Linux distribution always integrates the latest packages and that is a difficult task for the devs. They are working very hard to make everything work together and that's not always the easiest thing to do, especially when you are dealing with bleeding edge versions, especially when it comes to drivers and other major core components.
The upcoming OpenELEC will be a powerful OS
One of the main things characterizing this distro is the fact that it's capable of running on most of the available hardware available out there, including ARM64 for example. It's a great OS, albeit a little bit unappreciated. It might seem easy to make a distro that uses basically the Kodi (XBMC interface), but it's a lot harder than people imagine.
"The headline change is the big switch from XBMC to Kodi branding. Both project teams have conducted a major find/replace but if you spot residual mentions of XBMC anywhere please let us know. The name change affects more than the GUI; all references in code have been changed and in the OpenELEC filesystem /storage/.xbmc will be recreated as a symlink to /storage/.kodi to ensure hardcoded paths in addons or scripts continue to work."
"Other notable “under the hood” changes include a version bump from v3.16 to v3.17 Linux kernel, and a switch from OpenSSL to LibreSSL following the heartbleed disclosure. The LibreSSL package includes better licensing and allows OpenELEC to be simplified by removing support for other cryptographic libraries such as GnuTLS," said the developers.
Some of the more important improvements for this release, besides the adoption of a new Kodi base, is the upgrade of the FLAC package to version 1.3.1, the support for mpegts, some new Radeon firmware, and certain smaller fixes.
More details about the changes and improvements can be found in the official announcement. You can download the latest OpenELEC 5.0 RC1 right now from Softpedia.
