Forks

XBMC Media Center source code have over the years become a popular software to fork and use as an application framework platform for others to base their own media center software on, as if XBMC were a GUI toolkit, windowing system, or window manager. Today at least Boxee, MediaPortal, Plex, 9x9 Player, and Voddler are separate derivative products that are all openly known to initially have forked the GUI (Graphical User Interface) and media player part of their software from XBMC's source code. Most of these third-party forks and derivative work of XBMC is said to still assist with submitting bug fixes upstream and sometimes help getting new features backported to the original XBMC project so that others can utilize it as well, shared from one main source.

During the period from late 2010 and first half of 2011 different independent third-party developers also announced their development on ports of XBMC to MeeGo, OtherOS (for Cell microprocessor), Broadcom BCM2835 SoC based devices (like Raspberry Pi), as well as to Networked Media Tank and other Sigma Designs (MIPS architecture) based SoC devices.

9x9 Player for 9x9CloudTV

9x9 Player (by Santa Clara, CA based 9x9Network) is an open source software media player client for 9x9Network's 9x9CloudTV peer-to-peer TV delivery network over internet. The frontend of this media player client uses XBMC's source code as its application framework platform, and 9x9Network as a company is also an official sponsor of the XBMC development project.

Boxee

Main page: Boxee

Boxee, (produced by startup company Boxee Inc.), is a freeware and partially open source software cross-platform media center and entertainment hub with social networking features that is a commercial fork of XBMC software. Boxee now supports Windows, Linux, and OSX, with the first Alpha made available on 16 June 2008. Boxee as a company is also an official sponsor of the XBMC development project. The last version was 1.5. There will be no more versions of the desktop versions, with new emphasis on the Boxee Box.

DVDFab Media Player

DVDFab Media Player by Fengtao Software Inc. is a media player software for Windows, based on the XBMC source code. DVDFab Media Player can play encrypted and DRM-protected Blu-ray Discs for 60-days for free before it has to be licensed to enable that feature again. It can however playback unencrypted and Blu-ray ISO-images, folders, and other DRM-free media files without a license.

GeeXboX

Main page: GeeXboX

GeeXboX is a free and open source Live USB/Live CD based Linux distribution providing a HTPC software suite for personal computers and ARM-devices that since version 2.0 comes with a pre-configured version of XBMC media center as its media player and GUI.

iConsole

iConsole (formerly known under the project codename "Full Circle"), produced by startup company MechaWorks, is a freeware and partially open source media center and entertainment hub with video game console features that is initially a fork of XBMC and Boxee software. The first public Alpha release will be as a Linux based distribution, primarily designed to be installed on a computer's empty harddive to make a computer in to a dedicated HTPC, similar to that of the XBMC Live distro but specifically targeted to a minimum set-top box hardware setup.

MediaPortal

Main page: MediaPortal

MediaPortal is free and open source software media center written for Microsoft Windows that is initially based on forked XBMC source code by Erwin Beckers (a.k.a. Frodo, who was also one of the original founders of XBMC) in February 2004. The reason for this fork to Microsoft Windows was to get away from hardware and software platform limitations of the Xbox game-console platform that XBMC development started on, mainly because of the Xbox inability to support TV-tuner adapters natively as Erwin wanted PVR functionality. Now after several years and innumerable feature changes there has been almost a complete re-design of the source code, however the skinning engine of MediaPortal 1.X.X still remains very similar to that of the original XBMC software making it relatively easy for people to port skins/themes back and forth between the two projects, something that is done quite frequently.

Plex

Main page: Plex (software)

On 21 May 2008, XBMC developer Elan Feingold forked the source code of XBMC and started a new project called Plex, (previously this Mac OS X port of XBMC was informally known as the "OSXBMC" project). Feingold said that he would still try to collaborate with most Team-XBMC members behind the scenes and at least try to keep Plex skinning engine compatible with XBMC skins. While Plex began as a free software hobby project, since 2010 it is commercial software (freeware) that is today owned and developed by a single for-profit startup company, Plex, Inc., and today parts of what Plex offers is closed source proprietary software. The Linux, Macintosh, and Windows servers and clients are free, and offer their Android and iOS clients for a small one-time charge.

Feingold was the Team-XBMC member who first initiated the Mac OS X port of XBMC, but soon after he left the original XBMC project due to what was arguably a falling-out with rest of Team-XBMC's developer members over the team's majorities feeling that the XBMC project should aim for strict adherence to the GPL and always keep to an open-source software mindset. This disagreement is claimed to be one of the main factors that led Elan to leave the XBMC project and create the Plex fork.

XBMC4STB project by Vu+

Main page: Vu+

Vu+ (or VUplus), is produced by a Korean multimedia vendor, which is a manufacturer of Linux-powered DVB satellite, terrestrial digital television receivers (set-top box) that all currently uses Enigma2 for Dreambox based software as firmware.

In September 2011 Vu+ Day in Amsterdam it was announced that the next-generation Vu+ DVB satellite receivers to be released publicly in the end of 2012 will be using XBMC Media Center software for its GUI, a development project that they call "XBMC4STB" (XBMC for Set-Top-Boxes), with beta releases of both the software and hardware said to be made available to XBMC developers before then .

Voddler

Main page: Voddler

Voddler is a commercial video-on-demand service and client software streaming movies and television programming, similar to Spotify and Grooveshark but for video. From its first release at 1 July 2009 up until 24 February 2010, Voddler's media player software was initially based on a fork of the XBMC open source code. Voddler violated the license for XBMC's source code by neglecting to release all of their modifications that they used in their application as required per the GPL, and they have been publicly criticized for this. Voddler's newer media player software is since 8 March 2010 now instead based on the Adobe Air closed-source application platform.

ONEvision by at-visions

ONEvision by at-visions Informationstechnologie GmbH, (an international system integration and IT soutsourcing firm for hotels), ONEvision is a commercial fork of XBMC for use as hotel television system software in hotel environments and in the hospitality industry for in-room entertainment. It offers a platform for in-room service bookings and an IPTV interface, with custom theme branding. ONEvision is currently used throughout Europe and Asia at hotels such as Hyatt EMEA, Ramada Vienna, RIMC International, DWA Bratanki, Rogner International, EH&A, Heritage Hotel Hallstatt, St. Martins Therme, and Heiltherme Bad Waltersdorf. Template:As of, at-visions as a company is also an official sponsor of the XBMC development project.

OpenELEC

OpenELEC (short for "Open Embedded Linux Entertainment Center") is a free and open source embedded operating system providing a complete media center software suite that comes with a pre-configured version of XBMC and third-party addons with retro video game console emulators and PVR plugins. OpenELEC is an extremely small and very fast booting Linux based distribution, primarily designed to be booted from flash memory card such as CompactFlash or a solid-state drive, similar to that of the XBMC Live distro but specifically targeted to a minimum set-top box hardware setup based on an Intel x86 processor and graphics.

Element OS

Main page: Element OS

Element OS is a free embedded operating system designed for use on a Home Theater PC (HTPC) which is connected to a HDTV. Element OS is a Linux based distribution similar to that of the XBMC Live distro, however it comes preloaded with dozens of applications for listening to, viewing, and managing music, videos, photos, and internet media. XBMC is the pre-installed default media center, but Boxee and Hulu Desktop are also installable.

Sabayon Linux

Main page: Sabayon Linux

Sabayon Linux is a full Linux distribution that among other applications comes with a preinstalled and preconfigured "ready-to-use" version of XBMC Media Center.

yaVDR

yaVDR (which name originated from the abbreviation "yet another VDR") is an Ubuntu-based Linux (i386) distribution designed for Home Theater PC (HTPC) with TV tuner card for DVR (Digital Video Recorder) capabilities. yaVDR comes preinstalled and preconfigured "ready-to-use" version of XBMC Media Center from the "PVR" Subversion development branch as its primary front-end media player interface, with VDR (Video Disk Recorder) integrated as its PVR back-end server. It also features xine as an alternative front-end media player interface to XBMC.

XBMC4XBox

Main page: XBMC4Xbox

XBMC4Xbox is a third-party developer spin-off project of XBMC, with still active development and support of the Xbox platform. This project was created as a fork of XBMC as a separate project to continue having a version of XBMC for the Xbox hardware platform. It was not started by official members of the official XBMC project, nor will it be suppoted by the Official Team XBMC in any way. It started when support for the Xbox branch was officially dropped by Team XBMC, which was announced on 27 May 2010.