A huge blow to the already small RISC OS market and community: Castle Technology has announced that the Iyonix range of ARM-based RISC OS computers will be taken off the market after 30th September. Support will continue through the Iyonix website, the dealer network, and by email. This leaves Advantage6 as the only manufacturer of RISC OS hardware with its A9Home computer.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Member since:2006-01-16
IMHO, as a former RISC OS developer, I'd say that RISC OS just doesn't cut it.
The great parts of RISC OS were the innovative UI, BBC BASIC, and the font manager.
The really bad parts of RISC OS are the kernel, multi-tasking system, and memory model. These are all the same problems which plagued Mac OS 9. Unfortunately RISC OS never was a modern operating system, not even when it first came out.
Anybody suggesting that Apple should have turned to Mac OS 9 as the OS for the iPhone and/or iPod would be rightly ridiculed. Similarly I can't take suggestions that RISC OS should be repurposed for NetBook-class computers seriously either.
FYI, in Acorn's dying days they had a NetBook-class of computer in development which never saw the light of day. After the death of Acorn, RISC OS Ltd attempted to port RISC OS to the Psion netBook.
Edited 2008-09-30 12:45 UTC
Member since:2005-07-06
I would have strangled anyone that suggested that to me. 
Member since:
2005-07-06
I'm always surprised and puzzled how they have not turned this into the ideal NetBook operating system/hardware combination. The desktop is lost to Windows and MacOS X - but there is still alot of jockeying for positions. Linux is really getting in there - going hard at it. Microsoft has made a come back with Windows XP. RISCOS is in a perfect position - only if someone took it by the horns and did something with it.