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The new wave of ARM based netbooks should run RiscOS.
I remember Acorn A3000 machine booting to a usable desktop within 2 seconds. A ROM based OS would be great for simple netbook use and protected from OS corruption/viruses ...
RiscOS has usable browsers and some common apps have been ported to it.
I remember Acorn A3000 machine booting to a usable desktop within 2 seconds. A ROM based OS would be great for simple netbook use and protected from OS corruption/viruses ...
RiscOS has usable browsers and some common apps have been ported to it.
Or a ROM based operating system where one can update it but can only be done through going into a firmware configuration menu driven interface - software isn't bug free and will require updates as required. Coupled with a either a flash or traditional hard disk where all the user files can be stored - it would be awesome.
What RISCOS would need is Flash, WMV, WMA, h264, AAC and other formats supported out of the box. If an end user can sit down and navigate websites without having to worry about installing plugins or codecs - and there are simple note taking word processor; sell it at a cheap price, it would fly off the shelves. Heck, I'd be happy to purchase one
It seems to me that they are not exactly aiming for the mainstream user, but more of a niche, which doesn´t necessarily need all these fancy multimedia features.
If they where to aim for the mainstream, i would agree that it would be a necessity to include support for that. I think many would agree that when introducing a non'dows OS to any regular user, the first showstopper is always that it of course can´t to the most common things like printing and viewing youtube
But then again, focusing on the mainstream consumer would also include them changing a lot more in so many other aspects of their bussiness.
It's what RISC OS is, Stoney. Like XP is like something from Fisher Price, and OS X is, well like OS X.
Out of the two RISC OS Streams, Version 5 in my opinion looks the most attractive, there's an article on it here: http://home.freeuk.com/richardhallas/iyonix/
And like most OS's these days you can always theme them:
http://www.drobe.co.uk/article.php?id=2237
The use of textures & gradients in UI elements is something that has always made me cringe when looking at RiscOS (and Amiga OS) screenshots. Reminds me of the fake wood-grain panels on 70s station wagons.
That's one of the reason why the UIs of NextSTEP, MacOS 8/9 and BeOS still (IMO) stand up well today - the designers adhered to the "KISS" principle. Rather than trying to use their UI as a tech demo for the capabilities of the window manager.



