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RISC OS Select 1st Release Out

Posted by timothy on from the be-the-first-on-your-block dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes: "RISC OS Select, *the* OS for ARM powered computers has seen its first release. RISC OS started back in 1994, by Acorn computers, but when they went down, RISC OS Ltd purchased the rights, and released RISC OS 4 in 1999. In 2000 the Select program was started, and a rolling program of OS updates was initiated. Now, the first real release (after several pre-releases) is there: ROS Select 4.29 It features multi-user logon, DHCP, SVG graphics support, over 100 enhancements over the old ROS 4 more info at http://select.riscos.com and http://www.riscos.org."

6 of 135 comments (clear)

  1. I used to develop for RISCOS... by b.foster · · Score: 4, Interesting
    In fact, I was one of the contributors to the Linux RISCOS emulation package. This package is an excellent way to get your hands dirty developing for an embedded platform, without having to shell out for expensive hardware or proprietary dev tools. I highly recommend that your consider the possible use of RISCOS for your next embedded MP3 player or DiVX ripper appliance.

    Some of the more useful software available for RISCOS is online here, in a searchable directory. More information is also up on my friend Dr. Pearson's page.

  2. Correction by BigBadaboom · · Score: 5, Interesting

    RISCOS started it's life considerably earlier than 1994. The first official release was 1988 I believe. Back then it was ahead of it's time. Those first versions had anti-aliased fonts and many other user-friendly features that are still missing from other modern GUIs today.

    If you look at the screenshots the interface may look a bit primitive by todays standards (Acorn never bothered to hire proper designers to make things look pretty ;), but it is still hanging around today because it is such a nice a GUI to use - for beginner and advanced users alike.

  3. RISC OS on the GBA? by yerricde · · Score: 2, Interesting

    From the blurb:

    RISC OS Select, *the* OS for ARM powered computers

    Has RISC OS been ported to the ARM-powered Game Boy Advance?

    Or would it take too much memory? GBA has 288 KiB of RAM and up to 32 MiB of ROM (though the biggest current games are 8 MiB).

    --
    Will I retire or break 10K?
  4. Lets itself down by Rev.+Rudolf · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm a bit of a fan of the Acorn/ARM lineage - it's what I cut my teeth on. After unsuccessful forays at Z80 and 6502 coding, ARM was a dream to code for. When the machines first came out in 1988 (ish), they were talked about as being fast - which of course, they were (compared to the old BBC model B).

    Alas, the first version of the OS, "Arthur", was a dreadful letdown, IMHO - considering that, just a year or two later, on the same hardware, RISC OS 2 was released, with proper GUI and multitasking etc. So anyway, then I used RISC OS 2, and then RISC OS 3 when *it* was released. Life was great.

    My old A440 machine still sits here beside me, and when I fire it up every so often, there's one thing above all others which strikes me about it - it's so dependent upon the mouse. Typically most of the functions of any RISC OS application were accessed via a menu (keyboard shortcuts were only sparingly provided), and there was no way to invoke/operate the menu without the mouse. Nor switch applications. Nor all sorts of other stuff.

    Does anybody know if, now we're at RISC OS 4 (and more), that particular shortcoming has been addressed?

    P.S. looking at the screenshot, can I submit a bug report for the typo in "SysLog workspce" ?

  5. RiscOS is great for client-side apps by horza · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It certainly has the most intuitive and productive GUI in existance, and has done since 1989. Certainly better than Windows or Mac. It had the foresight to use co-operative multi-tasking instead of pre-emptive which leads to blazing speeds. The apps were well thought out. Its innovative use of drag and drop makes a mockery of the 'Finder' type widget you have to use *every* time you save. It would make an excellent model for KDE to aspire to. In fact a copy of the RiscOS Filer is available for Linux called ROX which has been raved about in many Linux circles. It would also be nice to copy the way every app is self-contained within its own directory. Uninstall app? Simply delete directory - no dependency hell. RiscOS front-end with Linux underneath? Mmmmmm

    Phillip.

    --
    Property for sale in Nice, France
  6. Any more comments from a technical perspective? by runnyhunny · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Folks,

    (first ever post, so please be kind!)

    I'm a sort-of RISC OS user. I have a 1994 Acorn Risc PC (with a 1996 processor upgrade - a StrongARM running at 200 MHz!) with RISC OS 4 (not 'Select') that I use from time to time.

    I'd like to hear what you all think about RISC OS from a technical perspective. Does it sound like a good OS? What interests you? What makes you puke?!

    Also, what do you make of the currently available (and 'soon to be available') RISC OS hardware? Now that Acorn are no more (effectively bought up by Pace and Broadcom) it's all down to a bunch of small companies to provide for us. What are your thoughts on reading the product descriptions from the following URLs:

    http://www.riscos.com
    http://www.castle.uk.co (not a typo!)
    http://www.riscstation.co.uk
    http://www.microdigital.co.uk

    ???

    For those that have wondered about RISC OS being ported to other ARM platforms... basically, it can't happen. RISC OS is *very* tightly bound to the Acorn-designed hardware that goes along with the ARM CPU in their systems. No-one seems to care about that. Oh, and RISC OS uses the ARM's 26-bit addressing mode, which was killed off ages ago. :-(

    Ah well. At least some good stonkingly good stuff came out of Acorn. Sophie Wilson, the mega-genius, co-created the ARM chip (starting back in 1983!) and created 'Acorn Replay', a full-motion video subsystem for RISC OS (round about 1991), which was streets ahead of Apple's QuickTime.