RISC OS Select 1st Release Out

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."

Comments

I used to develop for RISCOS...

[b.foster]

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.

Correction

[BigBadaboom]

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.

Lets itself down

[Rev. Rudolf]

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" ?

RiscOS is great for client-side apps

[horza]

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.