ROL flogs RISC OS 4 for all emulators

Download a RISC OS 4.02 ROM image for a fiver from RISCOS Ltd's website from Monday and use it with your favourite machine emulator, such as RPCEmu. The package is set to include the !Boot and application and utilities files too. ROL boss Paul Middleton said: "We have been looking at ways of making a low cost, or 'virtually free' version of RISC OS available for some time." Keep an eye on ROL's new sales website. The ROM image, which contains the operating system code usually found on the ROS ROM chips, will be available on CD too.

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Discussion

This is good news. The token cost doesn't seem unreasonable, IMO. killermike on 6/12/08 6:05AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Good idea .. and VRPC prices followed suit already. hzn on 6/12/08 8:22AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Good news for everyone, except muggins here. Only bought virtual acorn few weeks ago. An irritating and expensive bit of bad luck there. Monty on 6/12/08 12:49PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Shame, but it could be worse. I bought a PowerPC G3 Mac back in the late 1990s for around £1800, and a few months afterwards, they brought out a new model (G4 Sawtooth if I recall) that was massively faster, and far more up-to-date, and to make things worse, less than I'd paid for my G3. I didn't even want to think what my G3 was worth then... NickMason on 6/12/08 6:45PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Ok Paul, This is good news. Top Job! highlandcattle on 6/12/08 6:39PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Well done, RISCOS Ltd. Hopefully this will bring many users back into the legal fold: particularly those using Linux, for whom Virtual Acorn still isn't an option. stevef on 7/12/08 1:04PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Seems too cheap! stevek on 8/12/08 5:46AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Well I'm sure ROL would be delighted if you offered to pay more apdl on 8/12/08 6:37AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

THis is fantastic news. I was put off buying VRPC because of the one machine/license. Now I wonder if you will be allowed to buy VRPC and for only a fiver more/machine put it on all your computers. ps See my next post Cheers Bob nijinsky on 8/12/08 9:30AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

I will be buying at lease one copy or ROL's offer for emulation on my home linux desktop. The way I look at it.... this is the best thing to happen to the platform since the StrongARM. Okay, that may sound OTT, however, a platform lioves by its user base. This will add new (perhaps previous) users into the user base. I found out this offer from osnews.com so many non-riscos users may be tempted to give it a try. With more users comes more software sales and more functionality. With more Functionality comes more users. THen one day we may have a Haiku situation, where a small kernel is written (okay not like Haiku at all) that can load straight into RISCOS as speedilly as a ROM boot. A stripped down linux (without the periperals working on boot) can boot on an EEEPC in about 5 secs. I'm a bit excited..... I'll get me coat.... Cheers Bob nijinsky on 8/12/08 9:37AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Third and final post. From a marketting point of view, you must consider this. Are 20x the sales going to be generated £5 vs £99 for ROM's? Possibly, or not.... Even if you nly generate 80% of your sales in the short term. In the long term, through word of keyboard the sales will continue. PS I see in the press release that they say.... With RISCOS Ltd having now confirmed it's ownership of all versions of RISC OS produced since February 1999 Does that mean they own it lock stock and barrell? With no comebacks regarding ROM hardware sales limits???? Cheers Bob nijinsky on 8/12/08 9:42AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

"With RISCOS Ltd having now confirmed it's ownership of all versions of RISC OS produced since February 1999" I think you'll find the date was April 1st. druck on 8/12/08 1:20PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Hi Dave Well it is from [link] PRESS RELEASE 06/12/2008 Are they in a time warp. Cheers Bob nijinsky on 8/12/08 1:42PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

re nijinsky: 20x £5 vs £99 You are forgetting initial sale and ongoing support costs! It makes a big difference. CJE on 9/12/08 11:47AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Hi Chris Yes it does make a big difference. However, my (badly put) reasoning is this. You now have 20 users. If one drops out you still have 19 to sell the next version to. In the 1x 99 scenario. If one drops out you have a big ZERO and a dwindling market. Cheers Bob nijinsky on 9/12/08 4:56PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Just a quick note. The 4.39 upgrade doesn't work on the RPCEmu emulator - not that I thought it would but it was worth a try. Oh well. Calculon on 11/12/08 2:39PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Quick update. The 4.39 Update CD does work with RPCEmu, you just have to extract the contents of the ISO and copy !Install/Data/OS439 to the ROMs directory of your RPCEmu install. You'll also need to extract the DATA files (they're just ZIP files) that reside inside the !Install/Data directory over the relevant part of your RISC OS !Boot and Apps folder structure. Calculon on 13/12/08 9:34PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

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