XBian is one of the fastest media center operating systems available for Raspberry Pi. In my early comparisons (Part 1 and Part 2), XBian showed better speed and performance speed over OpenELEC and Raspbmc. This post introduces the recently released XBian 1.0 Beta 2 update.
What's New in XBian 1.0 Beta 2
XBian 1.0 Beta 2 is second Beta of Xbian 1.0, which already felt very stable, and it brings several updates, including the following:
Faster booting – typically less than 30 seconds.
Improved coding has reduced CPU usage significantly.
A configuration “Wizard” allows setting most of the parameters required for a first time installation.
Ability to run from any media, USB flash drive, USB Disk Drive or Network attached storage. (SD card is still required but just for the initial boot process) all through a menu driven tool.
Ability to install/uninstall XBMC 13.0 Gotham without loosing settings.
An option for automatically installing updates within a stated period.
Full backup and restore facility for all user settings via a menu driven tool.
Dynamic priority handling for XBMC, allows resources to be reassigned.
New Boot Loader allows other operating system to be installed, and allows user to choose which system to boot.
Ability to change “boot” commands online. (No need for a separate PC).
Image creation. Create an “img” file of your full system for backup or cloning on another RPi.
Improved DTS decoding, allows most 720p DTS files to be played back flawlessly without a dedicated hardware decoder.
Enhanced BTRFS file system allows snapshots of your system, allowing for almost instant restore, should something terrible happen to your system.
Automatic filesystem snapshots create a number of restore points, should the system need to be restored.
Improved journaling allows more security for your file system, as writes are not committed until all data has been written.
XBian specific skins, based on Confluence and Amber.
The original release announcement is available here.
Anand is a self-learned computer enthusiast, hopeless tinkerer (if it ain't broke, fix it), a part-time blogger, and a Scientist during the day. He has been blogging since 2010 on Linux, Ubuntu, Home/Media/File Servers, Smart Home Automation, and related HOW-TOs.
