Hi,
Unless you’ve been living under a rock recently, you’ll probably be aware that OSMC is out of beta and has now achieved its stable release. We’d like to take some time to explain how updates will be delivered to you and how they work. During the development of OSMC, we would release updates as soon as they became available so that we could immediately evaluate their success and get some feedback. Now, we plan to switch to a monthly release cycle which will be delivered at the end of each month.
The monthly update
Each month, we will release an update to OSMC. This update will bring bug fixes, stability improvements, performance improvements and new features. Unless you’ve customised your update settings, you should receive a notification when updates are made available. You can choose whether you want to check for and install updates via My OSMC -> Updater. If you miss a monthly update (perhaps you were on holiday) and a successive one is released, then not to worry, as OSMC is always upgradable to the most recent version from any stable version.
Security is paramount
Although we aim to provide a monthly update, there are times when we need to deliver an update more urgently. Over the last year we have seen some critical vulnerabilities, such as Heartbleed and Shellshock. Raspbmc, OSMC’s predecessor resolved these issues urgently and we will break our planned update cycle when necessary to deliver any security updates to the underlying Debian system as quickly as patches are made available.
apt-get dist-upgrade
We recommend users use the OSMC Updater via Kodi, but running:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
will keep your system up to date and will not cause any issues.
An open roadmap
Later this month, we will be opening our software development roadmap to the public. OSMC’s fantastic community is what makes OSMC so unique, so we’d like to show our gratitude and let everyone see what we’re working on in a transparent manner. We’ll let you know when it happens!
Kodi updates
Kodi updates, such as the much anticipated Isengard, will be made available as soon as they have been tested on OSMC and are deemed fit for use. Additionally, we will release updates to binary add-ons as soon as they are made available.
Wrap up
We hope that this covers any questions you may have had about OSMC and how updates will be delivered. Should you have any more, feel free to pop them in the comments below!