2016-04-23, 14:42
Hello all, I run 15.10 with Kodi on a couple of systems. Kodi-wise/performance-wise, is there any benefit to upgrading to 16.04? I haven't been keeping up on what changes the new release has.
2016-04-23, 16:41
On new intel hardware (Braswell or later) you don't need to install manual packages. Besides that - keep what you have.
2016-04-23, 20:12
And Ubuntu 16.04 is a LTS version. Means it's supported until 2021. Ubuntu 15.10 has an end of life in July 2016. So after July 2016 you won't get any support anymore.
2016-04-24, 01:09
(2016-04-23, 14:42)majorsl Wrote: Benefit of Ubuntu 16.04 vs 15.10?
Ubuntu 16.04 has Snap package support. KODI devs don't see this as a benefit though:
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=269812
;(
2016-04-24, 03:24
(2016-04-24, 01:09)qp9013625 Wrote:(2016-04-23, 14:42)majorsl Wrote: Benefit of Ubuntu 16.04 vs 15.10?
Ubuntu 16.04 has Snap package support. KODI devs don't see this as a benefit though:
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=269812
;(
There is a convenience benifit for some users, sure. However, you need to stop talking down to people who are experts at this kind of thing. It's okay to disagree, but try to not be insulting about it. Maybe you didn't know that fritsch already understands these topics l, and maybe you thought he was dismissing it out-of-hand when he said there was no technical benefit?
The project has not flat out rejected the idea. Most of what you saw was a reaction to how things were said. Some people have said that they don't think it's better, and that's a fair opinion. It's okay if someone doesn't want to work on an idea. Everyone needs to find a more polite way to disagree with each other. Otherwise it just esculates and then people associate the Snap idea as being negative and causing arguments, making it less attractive for someone to look into.
Personally, I think it's a great idea for some situations. Not everyone will agree, and that's okay.
2016-04-24, 03:35
I just upgraded from 14.04 LTS last night on my desktop, and so far it's a lot quicker.. but then it's a fresh install. 
Kodi 17 built fine on it, so that's a good thing. 
Ubuntu Mate just came out with a 16.04 LTS for the Pi as well.
Kodi 17 built fine on it, so that's a good thing. Ubuntu Mate just came out with a 16.04 LTS for the Pi as well.
2016-04-24, 04:02
I'd argue that the biggest benefit of 16.04 is that it is an LTS release.
If you go with 15.10, support ends in July of this year, at which point you'll either be stuck on an unsupported OS (without security patches, that is a BAD idea) or you'll be upgrading to a newer release which might break things and force you to reinstall from scratch.
If you go with 16.04, which is an LTS release, you'll have support until April 2021.
Honestly, to me 15.10 isn't even an option. I never install a non-LTS Ubuntu release. If I were to be choosing between 16.04 or an earlier release, the only possible choice would be the previous LTS release, which was 14.04, and has support until April 2019.
Personally I like setting things up the way I like them and then keeping them that way unless there is a compelling reason to change it.
As far as Kodi goes, unless you are using the on board Intel GPU, and are relying on experimental vaapi drivers, to me the any recent underlying Ubuntu release will do the job adequately, so it really comes down to support life cycle, and in that regard my primary choice would be 16.04, and my secondary choice would be 14.04.
As it stands there is a PPA error preventing installs on 16.04, and I have to have mine up and running by Monday, so I may be forced to go with 14.04, which won't be that bad. I'll still have 3 years of support, and won't have to reinstall right away.
If you go with 15.10, support ends in July of this year, at which point you'll either be stuck on an unsupported OS (without security patches, that is a BAD idea) or you'll be upgrading to a newer release which might break things and force you to reinstall from scratch.
If you go with 16.04, which is an LTS release, you'll have support until April 2021.
Honestly, to me 15.10 isn't even an option. I never install a non-LTS Ubuntu release. If I were to be choosing between 16.04 or an earlier release, the only possible choice would be the previous LTS release, which was 14.04, and has support until April 2019.
Personally I like setting things up the way I like them and then keeping them that way unless there is a compelling reason to change it.
As far as Kodi goes, unless you are using the on board Intel GPU, and are relying on experimental vaapi drivers, to me the any recent underlying Ubuntu release will do the job adequately, so it really comes down to support life cycle, and in that regard my primary choice would be 16.04, and my secondary choice would be 14.04.
As it stands there is a PPA error preventing installs on 16.04, and I have to have mine up and running by Monday, so I may be forced to go with 14.04, which won't be that bad. I'll still have 3 years of support, and won't have to reinstall right away.
2016-04-24, 07:09
The Op asked: kodi-wise / performance wise and that I answered.
You are obviously all right concerning the support of canonical. And he asks fro 15.10 - not 14.04, that he was not running.
You are obviously all right concerning the support of canonical. And he asks fro 15.10 - not 14.04, that he was not running.
2016-04-24, 15:17
Thanks for all the replies so far! These two machines are purring along pretty well with 15.10. They do have onboard Intel HD 4000s for video, but I've not needed to do any vaapi drivers. I built these two with used hardware a bit ago and went with the latest Ubuntu at the time which was 15.10. I liked that 15.10 supported my Hama/VRC1100/knock off remotes right out of the box without too much fiddling. Yeah, I probably could have used Kodibuntu too, but I decided on a full(er) Ubuntu install in case I wanted to do something more/different in the future and the hardware I used is probably overkill for just Kodi.
I'll probably upgrade to 16.04 if for no other reason then to get into the LTS channel. I did an upgrade to my normal use desktop yesterday and everything went pretty smoothly, haven't tested Kodi on it yet tho. Snap packages seem pretty cool for the average desktop user and will solve some problems there, but my opinion is they are a little overkill for the dedicated Kodi box where you're just updating Kodi once in awhile while your OS stays pretty static.
I'll probably upgrade to 16.04 if for no other reason then to get into the LTS channel. I did an upgrade to my normal use desktop yesterday and everything went pretty smoothly, haven't tested Kodi on it yet tho. Snap packages seem pretty cool for the average desktop user and will solve some problems there, but my opinion is they are a little overkill for the dedicated Kodi box where you're just updating Kodi once in awhile while your OS stays pretty static.
