Software Alternatives & Reviews

Raspbian VS LibreELEC

Compare Raspbian VS LibreELEC and see what are their differences

Raspbian logo Raspbian

Welcome to Raspbian. Raspbian is a free operating system based on Debian optimized for the Raspberry Pi hardware. An operating system is the set of basic programs and utilities that make your Raspberry Pi run.

LibreELEC logo LibreELEC

LibreELEC is ‘Just enough OS’ for Kodi, a Linux distribution built to run Kodi on current and...
  • Raspbian Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-09-29
  • LibreELEC Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-06

Raspbian videos

Raspberry Pi 4 & Raspbian OS Review

More videos:

  • Review - Raspberry Pi 3B Review - Is Raspbian Linux a real, practial desktop computer?
  • Review - Raspbian OS for the Raspberry Pi 4 8GB 64 Bit OS Full Review

LibreELEC videos

LibreELEC Raspberry Pi 1 2 3 Or Zero Quick Look Kodi For Raspberry pi

More videos:

  • Review - Raspberry Pi 4B on LibreELEC 9.2 with Kodi 18.3
  • Review - Kodi Compendium [Part 3]: Raspberry Pi OS Selection, Comparison, Performance Test LibreELEC vs OSMC

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Raspbian and LibreELEC)
Linux
100 100%
0% 0
Video
0 0%
100% 100
Operating Systems
100 100%
0% 0
Media Player
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Raspbian and LibreELEC. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Raspbian and LibreELEC

Raspbian Reviews

11 Best Linux Distros For Programming And Developers [2020 Edition]
Distros like Ubuntu and Debian have managed to establish themselves as the top picks when it comes to the best Linux distro for developers. Some of the other great choices are openSUSE, Arch Linux, etc. If you intend to buy a credit-card-sized Raspberry Pi, Linux-based Raspbian is also a perfect way to start.
Source: fossbytes.com

LibreELEC Reviews

Top 10 Best Linux Media Server Software
LibreELEC also has special builds for single board computers like Raspberry Pi. You can install this special operating system on your Raspberry Pi and get a media center device ready in minutes.
Source: itsfoss.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, LibreELEC seems to be a lot more popular than Raspbian. While we know about 66 links to LibreELEC, we've tracked only 4 mentions of Raspbian. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Raspbian mentions (4)

  • need help with image taking using a usb webcam
    Are you sure as normally folk use Raspberry Pi OS (Raspbian comes from here and not the Pi Foundation site here) ? Do you mean Raspberry PI OS and if so 32bit or 64bit and how up to date is it (i.e. Have you recently run apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade)? Source: about 1 year ago
  • Issues loading lightshowpi
    Yeah raspbian.org or something you download PiOS there and they have all the instructions. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Im trying to make a list of how to pronounce MOST Linux distros.
    Raspbian still exists at https://raspbian.org. Source: about 3 years ago
  • EE - Stuff to learn (during Freetime)
    Linux - Sooner or later you may be confronted with Linux. A free operating system, which is not like Windows or this thing with the fruit. It is used so many times, especially in the embedded field. It is not easy to get into it at the beginning, but an easy start is with Raspbian(and a Raspberry Pi, because it's optimised for that) or for Notebooks/PCs Ubuntu. There are plenty of distributions and you... Source: about 3 years ago

LibreELEC mentions (66)

  • Raspberry Pi 5
    - Two LibreELEC (https://libreelec.tv/) mediaplayers in house (yes, one is not enough in my big family). - One for hosting low usage applications at home network (Unifi controller and some more). - Octoprint (https://octoprint.org) connected to the 3d-printer. - One on my desk for hardware hacking – mostly as just a PC with GPIO. - Some Raspberry Pi Zeros as security cameras. - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
  • Plex to block all servers hosted at Hetzner
    You might be interested in the https://libreelec.tv/ project. - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • Looking for a distro to replace Roku Stick
    I'm aware of solutions such as LibreELEC but that (if I understand it) is just a Kodi thing. Source: 11 months ago
  • Watch Jellyfin content on non-smart TV
    Kodi is a media client as it provides a UI for you to browse, search for and view media. I have it running on my Raspberry Pi as LibreELEC. It connects to the same media sources that Jellyfin uses via SFTP. They support the same scrappers and folder structures so they can share the same media sources. If you're not adamant about using Jellyfin on the Raspberry Pi, this could be an option. Source: almost 1 year ago
  • Does anyone know why Kodi will not continuously run on a windows 11 machine?
    Thats not a Kodi issue... It is a Windows and hardware issue... If the only job of the pc is Kodi then use LibreELEC's Kodi... 1000 times better! https://libreelec.tv/. Source: about 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Raspbian and LibreELEC, you can also consider the following products

Ubuntu - Ubuntu is a Debian Linux-based open source operating system for desktop computers.

Kodi - Kodi is an award winning free and open source media player that got its start on the Xbox console.

Windows 10 - Windows 10 unveils new innovations & is better than ever. Shop for Windows 10 laptops, PCs, tablets, apps & more. Learn about new upcoming features.

OSMC - OSMC is a free and open source media center built for the people, by the people.

Fedora - Fedora creates an innovative, free, and open source platform for hardware, clouds, and containers that enables software developers and community members to build tailored solutions for their users.

OpenELEC - OpenELEC, which stands for Open Embedded Linux Entertainment Center, is a Linux operating system that makes the host computer a Kodi media center. The software was the winner of the Swiss Opensource Award in 2014.