This is a Rom Image and hard disc image of RISC OS, built from the open ROOL sources, but compiled up in 26bit compatible mode.
It mostly uses code from approx 2000-2002, compiled up with a set of contempory tools.
It should be compatible with Acorn RiscPCs, A7000s, A7000+, and the emulator RPCEmu.
↫ Peter Howkins
I’m not particularly well-versed in the world of RISC OS, but I think this build is targeting older machines that use 26bit ARM processors.
Reading about this RISC project just reminds me how good LXDE really is!
There was that little era starting around late 20th century when I think the interface reached peak utilitarian without the bloat. Solaris, Win2K, MacOS 9, NeXTSTEP maybe even OS2 they all had a very similar feel. Then slick and bling happened, and while I still like playing with Compiz and can’t really function without a cube full of desktops to occupy ADHD riddled 60 year old mind, I’m not sure all that what we have now is in anyway better.
badiya
There are certainly lots of people that think that user interface design has gotten worse over time. One of the most popular new OS projects has a return to the 90’s GUI as an explicit goal.
https://serenityos.org/
As for the similar GUI feel back then, at least Win2K and OS/2 were actually explicitly designed to the same set of user interface guidelines–Common User Access.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Common_User_Access
The Common Desktop Environment (CDE) was also essentially CUA which explains the similarity on Solaris. Early version of GNOME and KDE heavily inspired by CUA. At one point in history, there was a pretty decent consensus about what was important in UI design.
The mid-2000’s were a huge step back in my opinion. A lot of what was introduced then is already losing steam. But now we have a bit of a mix of old, new, and other. There are some good ideas out there now but things have really not settled down into anything nearly as cohesive as what we had before.
FWIW the developer behind this, Peter Howkins, was the same guy who arranged for CDE to get open sourced.
https://www.marutan.net/cde/
I tend to agree about UI bloat. Also, a lot of design diversity was lost. NsCDE is an impressive bit of customisation of FVWM to make it look *and work* like CDE.
I wrote an article trying to compare them:
https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/28/battle_of_the_retro_desktops/
I wonder if it would be possible to tweak FVWM into something resembling OS/2 WPS, or RISC OS, or other desktops which have no equivalent on modern FOSS xNix?
Nice write-up.
Popular DEs like GNOME, KDE, XFCE, and Cinnamon are all getting Wayland support but I fear that CDE and NsCDE ( being based on FVWM ) are going to be casualties of the transition to Wayland. It seems unlikely that either of them will become Wayland compositors. FVWM is based directly on Xlib I think so that is doomed. Who is adding Wayland support to Motif?
I think XWayland is going to be around a long time, so most of the Motif ecosystem ( and even Xlib based apps ) will still be viable on Wayland desktops. Not so for the Windows Managers and Desktop Environments themselves.