Something completely different
Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2018 5:32 pm
Yesterday was the 10th London RISC OS show. For those that don't know, RISC OS is the operating system for the Acorn "Archimedes" Computer that saw the debut of the original ARM processor.
Although a minnow in today's world of sharks, the OS has survived, had considerable development, and a crop of new hardware (including the Raspberry Pi) is now available. It has an incredibly small and lightweight footprint, and is very fast - being designed very specifically for ARM processors. Also, right from the start there was an application programmers style guide which the vast majority of developers adhered to. This has resulted in a beautifully integrated look and feel.
For some years, the status of this OS has been in doubt due to split ownership. However, the big news is that people have got their heads together (and a few were I suspect banged together) and the OS has now been made available under an open Apache license. The result is that there is a definite uptick in interest.
Currently the big issue is the lack of a fully featured modern web browser, but as reported on the show, plans are afoot to resolve that too.
Although a minnow in today's world of sharks, the OS has survived, had considerable development, and a crop of new hardware (including the Raspberry Pi) is now available. It has an incredibly small and lightweight footprint, and is very fast - being designed very specifically for ARM processors. Also, right from the start there was an application programmers style guide which the vast majority of developers adhered to. This has resulted in a beautifully integrated look and feel.
For some years, the status of this OS has been in doubt due to split ownership. However, the big news is that people have got their heads together (and a few were I suspect banged together) and the OS has now been made available under an open Apache license. The result is that there is a definite uptick in interest.
Currently the big issue is the lack of a fully featured modern web browser, but as reported on the show, plans are afoot to resolve that too.