Official:Kodi name change FAQ

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The big one: WHY are you changing the name?!

  • A few reasons, actually. Be sure to read our full announcement post by clicking here.
  • We've actually been considering a name change as a possibility for years, but never got around to it.
  • Finally cut the lingering connections to the old Xbox.
  • In recent years there has been more and more third party use of the XBMC name or derivatives thereof, which has proven confusing for users, and potentially damaging to our reputation.
  • We cannot trademark the "XBMC" name due to concerns from other software related groups that are very close to this name.
  • Even without trademarking anything, we have an agreement with another party to change the name away from "XBMC" before 2015.
  • This is not a new "marketing strategy" or direction for the software. It's really just a name change that we couldn't avoid.

The XBMC Foundation is still the same name?

  • The current situation allows us to use the XBMC name for our legal Foundation.
  • The XBMC Foundation is the name of the non-profit organization that controls donations and various business affairs for our software projects.
  • Think of the XBMC Foundation and Kodi in the same respects as the Mozilla Foundation and Firefox, or any other situation where the group name is different from the product name. We're like that, only with less dinosaurs.

What about Team XBMC?

  • Team XBMC will now be known as Team Kodi.

Will I be in trouble if I don't update the software to use the new name?

  • No, not at all. While we hope to you update to take advantage of new features and bug fixes, you as a user are not required to do anything in relation to this change.

I can't believe you guys are doing this! How could you rename XBMC?!

  • We are still connected to our old name since it will remain the name of our foundation, the XBMC Foundation.
  • The decision was not an easy one for any of us. Even within our group it is something we've discussed and struggled with, but ultimately decided was the best course of action. Many of us feel a deep attachment to the old XBMC name, and it always feels weird to change something like that when it has been around for a long time. C'est la vie.
  • New name or not, it's still the same great project with the same great users, people, features, and goals. We're still out to make the best media center with the best 10 foot user interface.

Can the new Kodi name be used in websites and other communities or products?

  • See here for our new trademark usage policy.

How did you come up with the new name?

  • We all got drunk as hell and then spun around as fast as we could. When everyone fell on the ground we had spelled out "Kodi". Then a great heavenly light shown through the clouds at us, lighting the name.
  • We considered a TON of names. We had a number of requirements for the new name, such as being reasonably pronounceable in various languages and not be a mouth full to say, not be used as a trademark for someone else's media-related product, be easy to remember, etc. The group came up with a list of names and had our lawyer go over them. We then got back a smaller list that had been checked for various legal issues, and then we voted on the final name.
  • "KODI" can be spelled using playback control symbols, although our curent logo does not do this. It was one of the ideas that was being tossed around, and a number of words that could be spelled that way were generated. While we did not go with the playback symbol idea, we liked the name in general, and it quickly became one of our top picks that was later sent off to the lawyer.
  • The letters "KODI" do not stand for anything, nor does the name have any specific meaning, but one of the ideas was to work in the word "code" in there.