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LibreELEC

operating system - lightweight Linux distribution forked from OpenELEC as Media center

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 3, 2026
Entity authorityQ28449365
Source-derived summary

LibreELEC (short for Libre Embedded Linux Entertainment Center) is an up-to-date non-profit and fully open-source fork of the (now discontinued) OpenELEC as an up-to-date Just enough operating system. It acts as a Linux-based all-in-one Home theater PC (HTPC) distribution for the Kodi media center application software appliance and entertainment system.

The initial fork of OpenELEC was first announced in March 2016 as a split from the OpenELEC team after "creative differences", taking most of its active developers at the time to join the new LibreELEC project.

This is a conservative fork of the OpenELEC project with a stronger focus on pre-release testing and post-release change management for a more stable setup and environment.

History

Because of the end of Python 2 support in 2020, LibreELEC version 10 with Kodi 19 switches to Python 3. Therefore, addons created for prior versions with python 2 need to be updated by developers for Kodi 19 because Python code is not backward compatible.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “LibreELEC” is operating system - lightweight Linux distribution forked from OpenELEC as Media center. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through LibreELEC, operating and system, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2016, 2020—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, LibreELEC, operating and system is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “operating system - lightweight Linux distribution forked from OpenELEC as Media center” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q28449365. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2016 and 2020.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “LibreELEC”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow LibreELEC primary sources, LibreELEC archive and LibreELEC research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “LibreELEC”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from LibreELEC” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.