14 DAY TRIAL // OpenELEC 5.0 Beta 3, an embedded operating system built specifically to run the KODI media center, the open source entertainment media hub, has been released and is now available for testing.
The openELEC distribution is moving from the XBMC base to the new Kodi and the developers have made a serious effort to get all the references to the old media hub purged from the operating system.
The functionality and the interface will remain the same, but Kodi comes with a number of improvements that will certainly be reflected in the OS as well.
The community has gotten used to the name XBMC, but they will have to adapt and make the change to Kodi. The XBMC acronym stands for Xbox Media Center, but it hasn’t had this function for many years. The application has grown in size and in scope, and the Xbox remains a legacy only in name.
The OpenELEC devs have been quick to make the transition from XBMC to Kodi, but they have to pay attention to some of the other components as well. That's the main reason we have so many intermediary releases between two stable versions.
OpenELEC 5.0 Beta 3 gets a new kernel
Because OpenELEC uses Kodi (former XBMC), it's easy to forget that the distribution is much more than one single application, no matter how complex.
The developers also have to worry about drivers, Linux kernel, network components, and a ton of other stuff. This makes the development cycle longer than the one for Kodi, but in the end the OS is always great.
"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. For information on Kodi 14 you can find on http://kodi.tv/kodi-14-0-helix-beta-1-springs-forward/ .."
"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," say the developers.
Other major changes include a new Linux kernel, 3.17.3, a number of small fixes, and a few driver updates. By the looks of it, the system is becoming more and more stable and it requires very little intervention from the devs.
Check out the official announcement for a complete list of changes and improvements. You can download OpenELEC 5.0 Beta 3 right now from Softpedia.
