http://www.osnews.com/story/18327/ROX_Founder_Why_I_Brought_RISC_OS_to_Unix Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2013, David Adams adam+nospam@osnews.com Thu, 20 Jun 2013 06:17:02 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif http://www.osnews.com http://www.osnews.com/thread?258099 http://www.osnews.com/thread?258099 A very interesting read. I am both a RISC OS and ROX user and think that the development carried out on ROX has been fantastic - I would hate to use another desktop.

I wonder how many readers here have tried (and use) ROX? Wed, 25 Jul 2007 14:34:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (polas) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?258115 http://www.osnews.com/thread?258115 I have tried it and to be honest for me it felt very dated, but then so is RISC OS - just my humble opinion. Wed, 25 Jul 2007 15:27:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Isolationist) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?258125 http://www.osnews.com/thread?258125 I tried it a looooong time ago (probably around 1999 or 2000) ...
Did any significative change happen ? I'm quite happy with Xfce these days, but I always try those things hehe Wed, 25 Jul 2007 16:25:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (AlexandreAM) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?258128 http://www.osnews.com/thread?258128 I don't know how it was back then but now, it is very modern.

Rox desktop has one of the best dock available out there. You get a task manager that show running applications and support dnd. If multiple windows are open, you get a popup select menu when you click on the application icon. Instead of getting smaller when it is filled, the dock will slide to accommodate lack of space. Speaking of modern, you now get a devtray applet that will automount removable device just like in gnome.

Of course, Rox filer, which is at the art of the desktop, is fast as hell, nothing to do with nautilus.

Several nice little applications are also available, such as a wallpaper manager, which will change wallpaper at a specified frequencies. You also get an application to set gtk and icon themes... the list goes on, it is very complete. Wed, 25 Jul 2007 16:32:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (DrCurl) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?258136 http://www.osnews.com/thread?258136 I think I'm gonna give it a try as soon as I get home from work... read a lot of nice stuff from its home page and your reply. Wed, 25 Jul 2007 16:55:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (AlexandreAM) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?258140 http://www.osnews.com/thread?258140 I use ROX as my desktop on two different boxes (one running Puppy Linux, and one running DSL), and I love it. It reminds me of my OS/2 desktop in many ways, or the classic MacOS Finder I used to use somewhat heavily.Edited 2007-07-25 17:14 Wed, 25 Jul 2007 17:13:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (rcsteiner) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?258153 http://www.osnews.com/thread?258153 Along with XFCE, ROX is probably my favourite Linux interface. Nice and light on system resources without lacking the features that I actually need. The ROX Filer is particularly nice, and not just because I'm an ex-RISC OS user.

To be honest using it doesn't give me the same feeling as RISC OS. I think that's mainly because 95% of the time when I'm interacting with my computer I'm using applications, not the file manager or other desktop environment components. The main thing that made RISC OS special was the consistency and unusual features in its applications. Some of those can be replicated in ROX, drag and drop saving for example, but apps like OpenOffice or Firefox don't have a look and feel anything like a RISC OS app.

It doesn't surprise me that people who are still happy with the RISC OS hardware and software available today chose to stick with the platform. Some elements of the OS look very dated today, but the UI still has some clever features that Linux, Windows and Mac OS X lack. In particular I always found the combination of RISC OS window management, where windows are happy to stay in the background even when you access their menus, and pervasive drag and drop between application, worked very well when creating DTP documents. In my opinion for many tasks it's still very pleasant and productive to use. Wed, 25 Jul 2007 18:13:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Dave_K) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?258182 http://www.osnews.com/thread?258182 Haven't tried the full-blow desktop, but (personally) can't stand the Rox filer. We used it on our first and second generation XTerminal/diskless servers, and after trying to explain to students how to use all the separate windows to manage files, we replaced it with Konqueror and Nautilus. Wed, 25 Jul 2007 21:31:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (phoenix) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?258183 http://www.osnews.com/thread?258183 Haven't tried the full-blow desktop, but (personally) can't stand the Rox filer. We used it on our first and second generation XTerminal/diskless servers, and after trying to explain to students how to use all the separate windows to manage files, we replaced it with Konqueror and Nautilus.

That's exactly how Nautilus acts by default and just like Nautilus you can change that option. I used Rox Filer for years and it is great on a low resource system. Wed, 25 Jul 2007 21:46:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (abraxas) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?258282 http://www.osnews.com/thread?258282 In my humble opinion it is plain ugly, because it lokks so, uhm, dated. It's like ten years ago - and that is old, very old.

It might be fast, but so are others, and I much prefer the look & feel of, say, windowmaker, fvwm, or afterstep. Thu, 26 Jul 2007 07:44:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (deb2006) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?258295 http://www.osnews.com/thread?258295 "In my humble opinion it is plain ugly, because it lokks so, uhm, dated."

I don't know what you're talking about.
http://users.unet.net.ph/~lars/images/roxshot.png Thu, 26 Jul 2007 09:31:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Soulbender) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?258296 http://www.osnews.com/thread?258296 I don't know what you're talking about.
http://users.unet.net.ph/~lars/images/roxshot.png

Hehehe! He said it's plain Ugly! Thu, 26 Jul 2007 09:42:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (RawMustard) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?258308 http://www.osnews.com/thread?258308 Well I don't find it ugly in the screenshot provided in the article: http://images.drobe.co.uk/extra/roxinterview/roxdesktop.png

The only thing ugly that I find ugly is the analog clock as it isn't anti-aliased.

Of course, YMMV. Thu, 26 Jul 2007 11:04:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (renox) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?258353 http://www.osnews.com/thread?258353 If you think that's ugly, have a look at a Plan 9 desktop ;-)

http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9/screenshot.html

Looks aren't everything. Thu, 26 Jul 2007 16:57:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (gavin.mccord) Comments