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ava! · (This post was last modified: 2018-05-10, 02:41 by ava!.)

So many features, and so few I will ever need, want, ask for, care-about or use.

This program has one real use - to quickly find and a play a video in one's collection, and somehow there is no longer a default thumbnail view?
It's almost NeoLiberal in how it has missed the point. I will NEVER go into this program to check the weather or play music, (my weather widget and iTunes do those things much faster and don't block my whole-desktop).

It's like when you take a family picture to a fancy frame-shop and walk out with coated, archival glass, quadruple matting, gold-leafed frame and you suddenly realize that your original picture is now like 10% of what the adventure mutated into.

If you want to go "KDE Plasma" with it and take 4-cores and a videocard to do what can normally be done on an iPod shuffle - good for you, but you should also offer a Vanilla option that just gets to the point - like XBMC Eden did years ago.

**Karellen** · 2018-05-10, 02:42

@ava!

Thanks for your feedback. I suppose the point you are missing is that Kodi was not written specifically for you. While you may find some features useless, others find the features very useful.

Of course, you can customise Kodi to your needs. You don't want weather? then don't install the add-on. Don't want Music? then hide the menu item.

You want a more streamlined look for Kodi, then search the skin forums for a skin that fits your needs, or skin one and share it with the community.

I would not consider anything in core Kodi as bloatware and the reason we have Add-ons, so you can install only what you need.

ava! · 2018-05-10, 03:07

Very well but they would not go amiss by starting off with the stuff people want, ready to go, rather than giving them all the stuff nobody asked for to start with and adding the 'core' later as an addon. Kinda like going to by a car and getting the seat-covers and fuzzy-dice a year before the car is built. There are THREE threads about missing "thumbnail view" on the first page of the the interface discussion. Don't be coy, you all are trying to TELL US what we should want, rather than listening to what we actually want.

We can go in an rebuild the entire thing: bigger, stronger, faster (and actually useful) "We have the technology", but it's presumptuous to expect us to to watch a video. Google is best when it does what we want (CHROME and SEARCH) and all that other crap is kinda' a distraction.

tssgery · 2018-05-10, 03:13

Whenever I feel this way about opensource projects, I roll up my sleeves, write some code, and contribute the features that I want.

I guess others complain.

What a shame.

trogggy · 2018-05-10, 03:33

I'm a bit confused by this moan. I had weather and music on my xbox, and a thumbnail view can be had for about 10 seconds of effort. My pentium 4 room-heater has been replaced by arm boxes that all use less than 10 watts.
Sure there are things I don't like, but nobody's making me update. If all you want to do is watch local files xbmc still works, no Huh

**scott967** · 2018-05-10, 04:34

"Playing a video in one's collection" is rapidly becoming a niche activity, sort of like playing a vinyl record in one's collection. The exception is for high-quality video, and that takes more computing power and a better video player element, which is a focus of developement.

Keep in mind also, XBMC/Kodi is aimed at the 10 foot entertainment UX, not a desktop, so unifying various media into a common UX is not IMHO a bloat, but a prime feature.

scott s.
.

**Karellen** · 2018-05-10, 04:55

@ava!

(2018-05-10, 03:07)ava! Wrote: Don't be coy, you all are trying to TELL US what we should want, rather than listening to what we actually want.

1. Welcome to the Real World. We are told a hundred times a day what we should want.
2. As said previously... Roll your sleeves up and submit.

You are speaking very generally so it is hard to understand where you are coming from. How about listing those features that you believe are supposedly useless and also listing the features that all users supposedly want. You have already mentioned Music and Weather but you write as if there are a thousand others.

If not, then understand you have said you piece and I will close this thread. Once you start calling features "crap" then it is no longer a welcome conversation but a disrespect to the volunteer developers who build and maintain this for you and others.

By the way... I wouldn't touch iTunes with a barge pole.

**tjay260476** · (This post was last modified: 2018-05-10, 05:09 by tjay260476.)

Bloatware?

Am I using a different version to the rest of the world? My copy only came with local playback features, and not a large file at all, (200MB tops) PVR, catchup TV and YouTube are all addons....

This as far as I remember was XBMC when it first came out, a player for local playback, and unless you want ‘advanced features’ you install addons.

It still gets its tv and movies metadata from external sources.... am I wrong but is this still the same software as all those years ago?

**jjd-uk** · 2018-05-10, 09:49

I suspect your issues are down to the new default skin Estuary, if you preferred the Eden default look which used the Confluence skin then that is still available from the Add-on repo.

**natethomas** · (This post was last modified: 2018-05-10, 13:24 by natethomas.)

Checking weather and playing music were both in Eden. In fact, if you actually look a total count of lines of code in Kodi, it's substantially lower now than it was when Eden came out in March of 2012. By over a million lines. https://www.openhub.net/p/kodi

It definitely sounds like the problem isn't bloat, it's that you're unhappy the default skin doesn't have a thumbnail view. Which... is that true? I thought Wall was thumbnail view.

Jucgshu · 2018-05-10, 19:26

Daily Kodi user from Camelot. Can make it my own since day 1 with addons (although I mostly use the Youtube one).

To the question 'is Kodi bloated', I would simply not feed the troll.

Kudos team ;-)

DJ_Izumi · 2018-05-11, 00:26

(2018-05-10, 02:37)ava! Wrote: It's almost NeoLiberal in how it has missed the point. I will NEVER go into this program to check the weather or play music,

Here here! It's about time that we went back to the good times, like 2007 when XBMC on my classic Xbox didn't have this NEOLIBERAL FEATURE CREEP like 'weather' or 'Music!'

Wait a second...

Oh no... But... That wasn't way back when...

Oh no... They must have Time Machines now.

**tjay260476** · 2018-05-11, 01:15

Speaking of 'time machines' let me take you back to 2003!

Here is a screen grab of an HTPC software before XBMC and before Windows MCE.... Showshifter.

Oh....look... you can play... DVD's, Videos and Music!

watch gallery

The only difference is that Team Kodi has added 'Weather' to basic usage... Bloat?! Really?

Arokhaerr · (This post was last modified: 2018-05-11, 16:37 by Arokhaerr.)

(2018-05-10, 02:37)ava! Wrote: So many features, and so few I will ever need, want, ask for, care-about or use.

This program has one real use - to quickly find and a play a video in one's collection

Kodi is MY choice and replacement for smart TV.
I use Zattoo, Zattoo recordings, music, Twitch, Youtube and Netflix all from one cool Interface (dat awesome Aura skin in dev currently) DAILY.

To get back to the quote, maybe VLC better fits your needs. Wink

(2018-05-10, 02:42)Karellen Wrote: @ava!

Thanks for your feedback. I suppose the point you are missing is that Kodi was not written specifically for you. While you may find some features useless, others find the features very useful.

Exactly~

**Klojum** · (This post was last modified: 2018-05-12, 19:50 by Klojum.)

I guess we've reached the end of the general conclusion, also because our OP hasn't bothered to react any further.

If you like Kodi, then use it. If you don't like Kodi, use something else.