LibreELEC 12.0 launches with Kodi 21 Omega and more

Announced in March 2016 as a fork of OpenELEC — which was discontinued the following year — LibreELEC entered the market with version 7.0 on April 4, 2016. This first public release contained Kodi 16.1. Last year, at the end of December, LibreELEC 11.0.4 arrived with Kodi 20.2 Nexus. Now, the time has come for LibreELEC 12.0, which includes Kodi 21 Omega.

In addition to the latest Kodi release, LibreELEC 12.0 comes with 64-bit versions for Raspberry Pi 4 and 5. It uses the Linux kernel 6.6.28 and also updates a very long list of components, such as mesa, samba, bluez, snapcast, and many more. The list of supported hardware also includes the NXP iMX6/iMX8, Allwinner, Amlogic, Qualcomm, Rockchip, Samsung (Exynos), as well as generic 64-bit x86 platforms packing AMD, Intel, and Nvidia parts. 

This new version comes with the need to reinstall Widevine DRM on the Raspberry Pi 4 and 5 when updating from LibreELEC 11. Sadly, all versions before LibreELEC 10.0 must be updated with a clean install. Those who want to get started with the LibreELEC-compatible Raspberry Pi 4 can currently grab the CanaKit Raspberry Pi 4 4GB Starter PRO Kit off Amazon for $119.99 instead of $139.99, thanks to a 14% discount.