Confusion about OSMC and Kodi, apps, add-ons and programs

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@Benjamin_t

I’ve been using OSMC just over 3 weeks now and I’m a bit confused about the few things:

I generally don’t think it is that confusing, But let me try.

@Benjamin_t

Where does OSMC stop and Kodi begins?

As it is clearly explained in the Wiki OSMC is the operating system that runs Kodi. So basically OSMC is the underlying operating system which is optimized to run Kodi on the devices OSMC is provided for (currently Raspberry Pi and Vero)

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some of the most common questions asked by new OSMC users. What is the difference between OSMC and Kodi? Kodi is a media center application and OSMC is the operating system that runs Kodi and brings it to your device. OSMC is not a fork of Kodi but rather a Linux distribution that ships Kodi as the main application. This is a similar concept to Kodi running on top of Windows or Android. OSMC is based on Debian (a flavour of GNU/Linux) and has been heavily optimised to provide the bes…

While there is no clear cut to say where OSMC stops and Kodi starts it could be said everything that you you see as a GUI (after the system has fully booted) and also all the media management are provided by Kodi.
There is one more twist to this topic as the OSMC also have provided a skin for Kodi (the OSMC skin) which provide a nice and simple look and feel of the GUI. But this is basically just a skin addon that is provided as any other skin that could be installed.

@Benjamin_t

What are the differences between apps, programs and add-ons? The menu interface is confusing.

1. Add-ons are additions to Kodi http://addons.kodi.tv/ that give more functions to Kodi they are normally independent from the Operating System and only change the Mediacenter (Kodi) but some of them can be quite intrusive and actually impact the stable operation of the underlying Operating System (OSMC).

2. Programs is actually just a menu point in Kodi in which a specific category of Add-ons http://addons.kodi.tv/category/programs/ will be installed that are considered “Programs” which means they have a certain function that don’t fall into any of the other add-on categories.

3. App’s and App Store is something that OSMC has added. While App’s can be installed from within Kodi they are not directly related to Kodi. App’s are programs/applications that will be installed as part of the underlying Operating System. The differences to applications that just would be installed with the underlying operating systems software management tools is that OSMC has packaged them and also added some initial configuration which make those Apps directly usable by the users.

@Benjamin_t

e. Nowhere can I find a direct access to the the all Add-ons list.

→ System → Settings → Add-Ons → Install from repository → All repositories
You might before that want to manually update the repositiiers via > System → Settings → Add-Ons → Install from repository than go on each repositiry and press ‘c’ and choose “Check for updates”

@Benjamin_t

Can you please help me understand how this works? Thanks.

Hope I was able to help you.