Open sourcing RISC OS won't help says ROL

RISC OS cannot be saved by simply open sourcing it, said RISCOS Ltd boss Paul Middleton. He added that Castle's wish to open source RISC OS "would have no effect on RISCOS Ltd's products".

Paul, pictured, told subscribers over the weekend: "Making RISC OS open source, or free as some people want, is not the panacea for suddenly taking RISC OS forward. No operating system can be developed solely for free.

"People have to make money somewhere along the line, and the experience of making the front end to !Printers open source a few years ago did not unfortunately produce masses of new development on it.

"To develop RISC OS requires customers, developers and cash. RISCOS Ltd's customers are the end users. We don't have a second source of income from major developers who will pay megabucks for specific support that can then subsidise the home users."

Meanwhile, the company has been forced to quickly change its bank account details following an attempted corporate identity theft attack. Customers with standing orders for Select and Foundation subscriptions are urged to update their bank payment details. The company's new details are:
Account Name: RISCOS Ltd
Barclays Bank
Sort Code: 20-18-15
Ac No: 60221651

In other RISCOS Ltd news

• Paul apologised for the "protracted release of Select 4", adding that Select 4 is built from the same source code as Adjust 32 - which is still being bug fixed and polished off. Hundreds of changes have been checked into the kernel since RISC OS 4.39, according to RISCOS Ltd, who are keen to stress that work is still on-going. Drobe has learnt that version 4.42, as seen running on A9homes, is also now in the hands of RiscPC beta testers with the latest builds dating from August this year. Paul also added to subscribers that the amount of time the volunteer testers are able to give this year is lower than previous years.
• Subscribers who had paid-up subscriptions as of August 30th 2005 will be allowed to download the first Select 4 release, or be posted a CD if they subscribed with that option. They must re-subscribe though to continue receiving updates. Punters who re-subscribed recently will be rewarded with a bonus three month extension.
• Paul revealed that in May 2002, a number of engineers left Pace but continued to provide contracted support of RISC OS to the corporation while developing the Iyonix product for Castle. Paul said the differences between RISC OS 5 and 4 were already noticeable back then, and now the two operating systems are now very different internally. We understand that RISC OS 4 has become particularly modularised with the introduction of its hardware independence, and the way in which the components communicate with each other is significantly different between RISC OS 5 and 4. The current time table for the Iyonix port of Select is: the 32bit version of RISC OS 4 must first be finished, then Select 4 has to be released, and then ROL will look at doing an Iyonix port. Around 120 Iyonix users have expressed an interest directly to ROL, which Paul says isn't enough to convince them that it is a priority.
• An extra 1000 ROM chips have been sourced by ROL for more RISC OS Adjust impressions, bringing the price down to 79 quid including postage for UK users.
• Paul also expressed frustration with Drobe readers who recently called for RISC OS to undergo a 'facelift', despite ROL coming under fire at the launch of the Select scheme for adding what some described as 'purely cosmetic features'. He said: "You can't win, can you?" Meanwhile, other readers called for an overhaul of the riscos.com website.
• Paul alleged that, of the Drobe readers who "regularly complain about
  the lack of RISC OS development", very few of them have apparently bought RISC OS 4 or subscribed to Select.

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