JeOS implementations for Kodi

JeOS is the abbreviation (pronounced: Juice) for "Just Enough Operating System" as it applies to software appliances and embedded operating system are very easy too install and use implementations of Kodi for appliance usage on dedicated devices. Hiding a powerful combination of a Kodi and an almost hidden operating system for bare metal installation, a good JeOS implementation can make Kodi installation look, feel, and act just as any commercial set-top box or professional Smart TV media player, with many even offering automatic OTA (Over The Air) updates.

There are several of these JeOS (Just enough Operating System) Linux distributions out there made by third-parties that are specifically designed to make into an software appliance, these include OpenELEC, GeeXboX, Xbian, OSMC, Buildroot and a few more.

These JeOS implementations for are all separate independent projects on their own, all aiming to provide the best complete media center software suite. These include a pre-configured version of and some pre-installed third-party addons/plugins. Most of these JeOS implementations are extremely small and very fast booting Linux-based distribution, that are primarily designed to be booted from USB flash memory or a solid-state drive. While this is kind-of a similar concept to that of the Kodibuntu distribution, JoOS distributions takes it a step father and specifically targeted minimum set-top box / Smart TV appliance hardware setup based on ARM SoC or Intel x86 processor mini-computers.

Introduction
JeOS generally refers to a customized operating system that is usually Linux-based and that fits the needs of a particular application (like ). Since these implementations is not a generic, one-size-fits-all "desktop" operating system they only need to include the basic pieces of an operating system (e.g. a a Linux kernel, network stack, device drivers, and maintenance tools) required to provide optimized support a particular application and any other third-party components needed to the appliance. This JeOS design concept makes the appliance smaller, faster (to boot and to execute the particular application) and potentially more more stable as well as more secure than an application running under a full general-purpose operating system.

OpenELEC
OpenELEC (short for "Open Embedded Linux Entertainment Center") is a free and open source embedded operating system built around its own optimized Linux kernel. It provides s complete media center software suite that comes with a pre-configured version of and third-party addons for hardware management and  automatic OTA (over-the-air) updates. Over the years OpenELEC have over the years had professional partnerships with several media player manufacturers and media center system integrates as OEM firmware developers, with OpenELEC maintaining the operating-systems on their hardware.

GeeXboX
GeeXboX is a free and open source Live USB/Live CD based Linux distribution providing a HTPC software suite for x86 personal and embedded ARM devices. Based on the OpenBricks framework, the GeeXboX distro comes since version 2.0 with a pre-configured version of media center as its main media player and GUI font-end.

Xbian
XBian is a small, fast and lightweight media center distribution for the Raspberry Pi, CuBox-i, Hummingboard and a few more devices. It is based on a minimal Debian and therefore offers much of the same options that Debian offers. Thier slogan is “XBian, the bleeding edge” and their main focus is delivering the fastest Kodi solution for various small form factor computers.

OSMC (formerly Raspbmc)
OSMC is the successor of RaspBMC and Crystalbuntu distributions, created and maintained by Sam Nazarko.

EmbER (formerly MX Linux)
EmbER (short for Embedded Entertainment Rom, formerly MX Linux renamed after merger with the TinyHTPC project) is a free and open source project based on embedded Linux operating system, design for the sole purpose of running with an minimum JeOS appliance OS on Android media players based on Amlogic's ARM SoC chipsets.

Links

 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_enough_operating_system