2004 Predictions

Well, 2003 has been eventful, as the large number of articles we've done this year is ample evidence of, so we'd like to make a few predictions about what will happen in 2004. Some of these are no-brainers mentioned only for completeness, and others more educated guesses.

We've also tried to be specific. It's all too easy to wave your hands around and make vague suggestions about the future. If we were to say that Castle were going to pull a suprise out of the bag in 2004, then we'd most likely be correct, but it wouldn't be very clever of us.

So, without further ado, here's our list:

• Select on ROM. No surprises here - RISCOS Ltd have discussed this since their 2003 AGM and showed early ROMs at the South East Show. This will be a welcome upgrade for many users.
  
  
• Iyonix NetBSD. We've not been in touch with the NetBSD people for a while, so we're not entirely sure when in 2004 this might be, however NetBSD has long since been ported to the IOP321 processor in the Iyonix, and the problems which were resolved in the Iyonix Linux port will be very easy for a NetBSD/ARM32 developer to integrate into its kernel.
  
  
• Iyonix Laptop - we predict that there will not be an Iyonix laptop in 2004, for reasons of being able to justify the small (and diminishing with the takeup of VirtualRPC) potential market against the difficulties in obtaining a suitable case.
  
  
• Shared Libraries - we predict that there will be deployment of a proper shared library system in 2004, perhaps around the middle of the year. Much has already been done in this area such as Steven Simpson's work, and my own demonstration that a RISC OS ELF toolchain was very much possible.
  
  
• Package Management - as a result of Graham's sterling work, 2004 will see the widespread take up of a RISC OS package manager, at least for management of a small number of applications. This will also be important for the use of shared libraries.
  
  
• Drobe's 1000th article - ok, another easy one. This is article 917, so we're on course for the 1000th article at the beginning of April.
  
  
• ARMTwister - we had to throw a controversial one in here. We predict that we will not see the long promised, XScale upgrade for the Omega, the ARMTwister, until around Xmas 2004.
  
  
• Web Browsers - 2004 may be the year in which the browser situation begins to properly mature for RISC OS. Firstly, we have the ongoing NetSurf developments, which may yield a sensible browser (although sans JavaScript) around the middle of the year. There are the promised Oregano2 updates, which it will be interesting to see pan out, and finally, the Unix Porting Project has some surprises up its sleeve.
  
  
• Cino - we've previously mentioned that Cino, the Iyonix DVD player, is expected for Q2 of 2004, so that belongs on this list. We're very interested to see what final performance is achieved out of it.
  
  
• Iyonix PCI cards - 2004 is supposed to be the year that all manufactured PCI cards are either 3.3V or universal, meaning they physically fit into an Iyonix. Two things we expect to see are a surround sound card to complement Cino, and the release of Simon Wilson's TV Card software. We also think it likely we'll see some kind of dual head solution for Iyonix to rival the functionality on ViewFinder cards.
  
  
• GCC 3.3 - currently in testing is 3.3.3 of GCC for RISC OS, which will bring us inline with other platforms. This release also includes substantial improvements to Unixlib, and should be available in late January.
  
  
• GemPrint - Martin Wuerthener's all singing printing system for RISC OS is expected to also be available in January.
  

Related articles
Best of 2004 awards results
Voting for Best of 2004 Awards open
Midlands 2004 show report

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