Castle released RISC OS 5.13 this weekend, its first free update since the paid-for release of 5.12. The ROM image can be fetched from Castle’s iyonix.com website. The new version of their 32bit stream of the operating system is the result of a bug fixing exercise: its ‘key features’ are two updates for the Filer, two updates for the Pinboard, a fix for the Display Manager, an update for the Repeat command, a fix within the Shared C Library module, an update for the BASIC assembler, and a fix for the EtherK network driver.
Has anyone here ever bought an Iynoix machine?
I priced one of their 600 MHz systems to over $2,157.
What a bargin!
RISC OS 5.x looks like Windows 95 with slightly improved gradient icons and buttons. Based on the feature list, its about as functional too.
Of course I’m sure its secure since the entire OS resides in an EEPROM chip rather than a hard drive.
Linux is supported too. A port of Debian Woody for the very latest in open-source innovations. Nice!
OK, I’m sorry. I just couldn’t resist. 🙂
You clearly have no idea do you?
I don’t think anyone would disagree that the Iyonix is expensive. The price you quote is kind of artificially high due to the Iyonix being produced in the UK, and with the current exchange rate to the US$, it makes it a very expensive proposition in the USA at the moment. But even so, yes it’s pricey.
Your feature comparison with Win95 is not that far from the truth.
RISC OS is secure by obscurity, not by design, the EEPROM does not make much of a difference, you could store Windows ME on a chip, would not make it secure.
Linux is indeed supported, but unless you have a particular interest in running it on the ARM architecture, you’re better off with a $50 PC.
But all that (while mostly true) completely misses the point of RISC OS, I think the major draw of RISC OS right now is “fun”, it is a quality lacking in practically all computer platforms these days and should not be under-rated. The comparison I make all the time is this: Some people want a BMW, some people prefer a Caterham sports car. The BMW is technically superior in every single way imaginable, however some people simply prefer the rough and ready driving experience of a Caterham. It’s a simple preference made by a human (who is after all, an emotional animal), and not all human decisions are based on fact, the most important decisions a human will make are not based on fact, specification, or weighing up pros and cons, it’s gut instinct, and a simple matter of preference for that individual.
That said, there are some good points of RISC OS, it starts up pretty quick, it has a very, very pleasant UI, it’s snappy quick on low end hardware, easy to code in assembler (if you want to learn assembler, you could do worse), there is great use of common filetypes so you can drag and drop stuff between lots of different apps. There are more cool features of RISC OS, but if you’re interested you can find them out yourself.
But really, it’s about fun, and getting a computer which you like rather than tolerate, and maybe it’s also a little about sticking it to the man, assertion of individuality, whatever…
Edited 2007-02-27 10:46
Have you tried Rox Desktop? I have seen a few post here about it recently. I’m considering giving it a try, espacially following your inspired comments about RISC OS.
Would you say that it is possible to get a RISC OS experience by using Rox Desktop on Linux? or maybe it is not just about UI…
I was recently given an A7000 (which is a bit like a cut down RiscPC), and have been playing about with RISC OS 3.6. I used to use RISC OS 2.x a lot whilst I was in college (pre-university, sixth form that is.) I liked it well enough back then, but more recently have been a little negative towards RISC OS. However, it’s not a bad little OS. It boots quite quickly (on a par with BeOS for speed – though as the OS is in ROM that does puzzle me a bit) and I’ve has a bit of nostalgia running old apps and stuff on it (Elite and Twinworld for example.)
My take – RISC OS 3.6 is quite dated now. It doesn’t feel modern. The OS on the whole is okay to use though. It’s a better experience than that of AmigaOS 3.x on an Amiga 1200 at any rate. The Iconbar is okay. It’s not as wonderous as RISC OS ites would have you belive. The famous “drag and drop” doesn’t work all that well. The app seems to need to be running and you drop on to the icon bar, whereas on a Mac I could drop the document on to the non running apps Icon (e.g. Stuffit) and it would start the app. Maybe a RISC OS-ite could correct me there. All my RISC OS memories are quite hazy.
I’m sort of torn. I like it, but if I hadn’t have been given the computer for free, I might not have paid any money for it. Not much at any rate. Overall it’s a little sluggish. Upping the RAM to 12MB didn’t really make much difference.
Nice toy though anyway. I have no doubt an Iyonix would be a lot more fun to play with 😉
You should try and find cheap RISC PC on ebay.
They can go for any thing from £10-100.
I think bearing in mind how incredibly slow the A7000 is (even by RISC OS standards), then BeOS like startup speeds could be considered pretty good, as I expect your BeOS box does not run at less than 40MHz…
You’re right, RISC OS 3.6 is very dated, and RISC OS 4 or 5 does offer some nice improvements, although you’ll still have some UI issues which should be resolved (in an ideal world), but is that not the case for any OS?
If you feel the A7000 is sluggish, you could get a StrongARM RiscPC for less than £100, it will be around 7-10 times faster.
RISC OS does not feel modern, for a simple reason, it’s not! 🙂
But it still has a lot to offer, you just need to accept it’s flaws and embrace it’s strengths.
Edited 2007-02-27 23:00
> I think bearing in mind how incredibly slow the
> A7000 is
I don’t think its really the A7000’s fault. It all runs fast enough. It’s just slowish.
> as I expect your BeOS box does not run at less
> than 40MHz…
No, dual 66MHz PowerPC 603’s.
> If you feel the A7000 is sluggish, you could get a
> StrongARM RiscPC for less than £100
I think the point is/was that I wouldn’t *want* to pay anything more towards RISC OS at the moment. The A7000 is a brilliant nostalgia trip – as I mentioned, I was big into Archies about 15 years ago. The A7000 doesn’t seem much more advanced than back then. That is the problem I think. Even RISC OS 4 and 5 don’t seem to have changed drastically in that time on paper.
I’ll stick timkering with my A7000 I think 😉