Release RiscOS anyone?

[hkipp]

Everyone is talking about Linux/Ubuntu and how to get all the applications onto pandora. Has anyone considered porting RiscOS to this nice device - or spoken to anyone at RISCOS Ltd. about this? Afaik RiscOS http://www.riscos.com is already true 32-bit and offers lots of programs natively for ARM-processors (like !TechWriter, !Draw etc.) that are all very memory efficient, and OS itself fits into 4-6MB of (Flash)ROM.

Just my two cents.

Regards,
Holger

 

[ashdjones]

Okay, from reading the website and the Wikipedia entry it looks like it's a commercial OS. Is that right?

 

[Kyosys]

it's open source now, I think

yep

http://www.riscosopen.org

 

[ashdjones]

I think it would be a nice addition, though I don't see it being adopted for the firmware. Personally, I love trying out all sorts of operating systems and I actually used RiscOS on an Archimedes at primary school!

 

[chiark]

I'd love to see that - in fact, I'd love to see efforts to put a retro OS as the native OS of pandora.

Specifically amigaos (either native via AROS, or via 68k emulation), with RTG graphics... It's possible, but would take a shedload of work.

 

[ljones]

The problem with using RiscOS is that it isn't going to know anything about drivers. So an entire system would have to be created to allow such a thing. RiscOS is pretty old now, and last time I checked (though I admit my infos could be out of date) some portions are closed source and propietary.

Meh. Let's port ARTHUR to Pandora!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_(operating_system)

hehe!

SP

 

[Karel Jansens]

Why not just port the Rox Desktop? From what I hear it gives a pretty good RiscOS experience on Linux, which IIRC is exactly why it was made.

 

[hkipp]

Having RiscOS natively (it is after all developed natively for ARM processors) would also allow to run the RiscOS software - which can't be done with Rox. And RiscOS has a very low footprint with a full graphical environment - maybe it would help if one of the RISC OS Open developers would get a pandora box for free ;-)

Saying that RiscOS is quite old now isn't completely right, as for Iyonix and other 32-bit-Processors several things had to be improved and optimsed, such that RiscOS is now available in true 32-bit, and there was also support for at least some USB-devices.

Anyway, I'll try to check with RiscOS Ltd. and RiscOS Open, maybe they are also interested...

Regards,
Holger

 

[MatthewMalone]

Now that is by far the best suggestion OS-wise in my book!!!
I once owned an Acorn Risc-PC, it was awesome and far ahead of its time.
Much of a niche product, but much better from the ground up than anything else, even better than the Amiga (and I'm actually quite fond of Amiga).
No doubt, it would be the fastest OS to run on the Pandora natively and it is in no way old by todays standards. On the contrary, they kept up with times and it is very modularised now.
I would even pay for it if there was a Pandora version.
The Pandoras internal hardware is as it is, it's no PC with tons of different possible configurations. Therefore it would be worthwhile building a hardware optimized RiscOS for it.
Afterall it's an OS that is singularily made and assembly optimized for ARM processors, nothing could possibly run faster and with a smaller footprint, it carries next to none inherited garbage.

Please guys, just don't put everything down that isn't Linux.