Castle FAQ on RISC OS buy out

When we last spoke to Castle Technology, they promised us an FAQ that will clear up any questions concerning the handing over of RISC OS from Pace to Castle. Today, that FAQ has been published.

Cutting to the chase, here's how the situation stands:

RISCOS Ltd will continue to produce versions (including Select) of RISC OS 4.

Castle also will encourage the production of a version of Select for RISC OS 5.

Pace continue to develop, produce and sell the DSL4000 IP gateway from their Cambridge based office.

Castle continues to ship its XScale Iyonix range, as well as granting new licenses (which don't overlap any existing exclusivity).

Tematic Ltd would be the first point of call for all new embedded versions of RISC OS.

The FAQ goes into detail in quite a few areas. Castle wish to maintain a single source code tree for RISC OS 5. This would allow RISC OS 5 to be deployed in desktop machines or mass-market consumer products with minimal modification. RISCOS Ltd. are therefore encouraged to continue working on desktop specific features and then migrate them across to RISC OS 5. In short, a complete merger of RISC OS 4 and RISC OS 5 isn't in the road map. There won't be a RISC OS 5 for RiscPCs and A7000s either.

Finally, Castle's FAQ pretty much hammers in the final nail in Browse's coffin. Astonishingly, Castle would prefer it if you all used Oregano 2 than Acorn's way out of date but very much loved web browser.

Although there's emphasis in the FAQ of Castle easing RISC OS into mass-market consumer products, the desktop market isn't being left out.

Links
Castle and RISC OS FAQ
Castle Technology

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