The 'pure' version of Kodi for Ubuntu Linux is dead

Team Kodi, which has long provided Personal Package Archives (PPA) for Ubuntu users seeking up-to-date and undiluted versions of the hugely popular Kodi media player, has announced the retirement of the service. This decision was apparently made due to the high maintenance overhead associated with its upkeep.

As the Linux world gradually transitions towards packaged deployments and containers, The Kodi Foundation says it is planning to use Flatpak for future applications. This move will not only provide a more maintainable "pure" Kodi application, but also extend its accessibility to more distributions than the PPA ever could.

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The transition to Flatpak builds, however, is not without its challenges and it will require considerable effort to ensure the new builds match the quality and stability that the PPA offered Linux users.

Over time, the team plans to make it more obvious as an installation method, and will update its documentation accordingly. For users who prefer building from the source, Team Kodi says this option remains available, as with other distributions.

The official Kodi PPA was available for Ubuntu, and derivatives such as Lubuntu, non-Debian versions of Linux Mint, KodiBuntu, XBMCbuntu, and many others.

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