RISC OS Archive

Castle today released a slight update to its RISC OS 5 for Iyonix machines, version 5.08. This is a bug fix release, addressing issues seen by a few users.

For those detractors who've been complaining that new RISC OS kit is too expensive, Castle are now offering a DIY option which could save you several hundred pounds. You purchase the motherboard, and a minimum of other parts from Castle and supply the rest yourself. More details on Drobe.

Two important pieces of RISC OS news have broken this week: firstly, RISC OS Ltd announced that they have been developing a 32-bit version of RISC OS. Secondly, Advantage Six have announced that they have built a series of machines for embedded / industrial use.

Perhaps surprising, and certainly not obvious to many people, is that it's been possible to develop RISC OS programs under Windows for a long time. Historically, ARM's SDK environment was able to generate RISC OS binaries, although that support was removed some time ago. More recently (but has still been true for a number of years), it's been possible to build RISC OS programs using GCCSDK under Cygwin - although bugs in the version of the compiler packaged with it did make that problematic earlier this year.

The Unix Porting Project's efforts to bring X Windows software to RISC OS continues, as the team gradually implements more and more of the X11 specification to enable open source applications, found on Unix, to be enjoyed by RISC OS users. While the ChoX11 library isn't complete yet, applications are starting to take shape, such as the GTK-based web browser Dillo.

Producing digital music with RISC OS is still possible, says artist Antius, who this month told drobe.co.uk that he's finished recording his latest album, in which RISC OS played a considerable part. Conceived under the hEgelian diAlectics project, the album is due to be mastered at Eevolute, although no specific release date can be given.

In a historic announcement, issued jointly this evening by RISCOS Ltd., Castle, Advantage 6, MicroDigital and VirtualAcorn, it would very much appear that the past on-going disputes surrounding RISC OS have been settled. Take a deep breath, then wait for this.

How much will it cost to modernise RISC OS 5? Give it your best guess. Well, yesterday Castle estimated that, for them, it'll probably cost between eight and ten million quid. And therefore, it's going to be a very gradual process.

Castle Technology has provided Iyonix owners with a new version of RISC OS 5. Version 5.06 promises better USB, NVidia and mouse-wheel support and a working copy of !Edit which had been broken in the previous release.

Chris Williams wrote an editorial analyzing the troubles RISC OS and AmigaOS had over the years and finds many common missteps and common problems.

One of the most impressive aspects of even relatively modest PC hardware is its' ability to emulate a wide range of other platforms. Being a bit of an OS junkie myself, and lacking the space for a full computer room of weird and wonderful hardware, I emulate a range of systems from my humble desktop PC. In this article, I will describe the procedure through which you can run RISC OS 3.7 and others on a Windows-based PC and experience this classic OS (screenshots included).

"RISCOS Ltd., developer of RISC OS 4, yesterday announced its pricing scheme for RISC OS 4.39, the next major release of everybody's favourite 26 bit mode operating system. The announcement confirms our initial figures which we revealed early last month. RISCOS Ltd. have also disclosed that the price of RISC OS 4.02 ROM sets are set to increase from March this year." Read the rest at Drobe.

"The current state of play is that the package manager RiscPkg exists with a very basic set of features. There are a handful of packages with which the system can be tested, but initially these are just the package manager and its supporting libraries." Read the article at Drobe.co.uk.

Graham Shaw has released RiscPkg, a RISC OS package manager. The idea behind package management is relatively simple, but it can hide suprisingly complex details in its aim to ensure a system has the latest versions of software, along with making sure dependent programs are installed, and downloading these easily with an automated installation system.