OpenELEC runs Kodi, an award-winning free and open source (GPL) software media player and entertainment hub for digital media. For more info see http://kodi.tv .
The base system has been designed and built from the ground up to be as efficient as possible – consuming only tiny disk and memory footprints and providing cutting edge hardware support to deliver a set-top box experience.
In order to run software above the base OpenELEC distribution with minimal impact to the OpenELEC base, one alternative is to use a container.
I have chosen to use systemd-nspawn instead of chroot. There are really no downsides as long as you can configure the required kernel config options and have a basic working knowledge of systemd.
Installation