Merged OS is "many months" away | Drobe.co.uk archives

Merged OS is "many months" away

By Chris Williams. Published: 19th Oct 2004, 14:49:02 | Permalink | Printable

ROS users are good at patience, though

Castle have admitted that it will be "many months" until a merged version of RISC OS 5 and 4 is ready to be released to end users.

Although the ink from Friday's agreement is still drying and the announcement (penned later that night) excited many users, exactly how the future merged OS version is to be released is still on the drawing board.

Jack Lillingston, Castle managing director, argued that this is no small task. He added that there is five years of source code divergence that needs consolidating, stressing that the OS "convergence" is for the benefit of RISC OS. Castle will initially receive all applicable source code dated prior to the end of Q1 2003, from RISCOS Ltd.

Castle see themselves as the ones to take RISC OS into newer, stranger places while RISCOS Ltd. concentrate on the desktop side of affairs. Companies are welcome to licence RISC OS from Castle or RISCOS Ltd., provided it's done within certain "parameters", as Castle put it. Advantage Six, for example, will continue to be a ROL sub-licencee.

Last month, the fruits of Castle's set top box development work was showcased at the IBC, a large broadcast and entertainment media trade show.

Links

Castle website

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Discussion

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I asked Jack about the time scale and whilst he wouldn't give me a timescale, they do tend to go adrift, when I prompted with a time frame of 9 months. He did comment that he would expect it to be 'sooner than that'.

Indeed he said that RISCOS ltd and Castle had agreed to a timescale.

quatermass on 19/10/04 4:33PM
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Superb news. Perhaps when I replace my RPC next year, it will be with the new merged RISC OS - idle speculation, but perhaps the new merged RISC OS will be RISC OS 6, or 5.5

sa110 on 19/10/04 5:32PM
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/me votes for RISC OS 98

nex on 19/10/04 8:11PM
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sa110: when you read RISCOS Ltd's / RISC OS Developments' web press release carefully, you would know the working title. ;-)

joty on 19/10/04 8:30PM
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For the merger being many months away, possibilities of RO 6 (or what ever name), seem good RO prospects for 2005. Maybe an alternative for consideration of MS users, as I'm told that XP Windows next year will be just an extended XP version and not a whole new release version. 2005, time to nab a slot of the market RISC OS, or just catch up to the market?

Sawadee on 19/10/04 11:24PM
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In reply to Sawadee:

I sincerely doubt we'll catch up with Windows within this timeframe. I think most effort would be put into consolidation and optimising of the OS, then from there perhaps think about where to take it. Time to look back at the Merlin docs from earlier this year for clues...

sascott on 20/10/04 2:12AM
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realistically, it'd be pretty difficult to convert people to RISC OS so long as it can't be installed on PC hardware. The price barrier is just too high for most people, unless they're already using RISC OS or are an ex-Acorner. Merging the two development trees might lower costs a bit though.

Clades on 20/10/04 7:53AM
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In reply to Clades: MacOS can't be installed on PC hardware either. MacOS hardware is also much more expensive than RISC OS hardware and so perhaps gives the RISC OS market something more realistic to aim for. Cheers!

fwibbler on 20/10/04 4:53PM
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fwibbler: How do you work out Macs are more expensive than RISC OS boxes? Macs start at less than half the cost of an Iyonix, even a G5 Power Mac is £1099 these days.

thegman on 20/10/04 5:06PM
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Bugger! I meant more expensive than PC boxes. Cheers!

fwibbler on 20/10/04 5:31PM
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I can't deny that!

thegman on 20/10/04 5:36PM
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Clades: RISC OS /can/ be installed on PC hardware using VARPC, and at around 100 quid the price shouldn't be a barrier. If all it does is rekindle the interest of a percentage of former users it will have done a considerable service to the platform.

George

bucksboy on 20/10/04 6:52PM
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There is, I believe, a MacOS emulator being developed for the PC. Try [link]

Eddie on 20/10/04 8:35PM
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What if I'm not that patient

jess on 20/10/04 8:47PM
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AFAIK status of CherryOS in uncertain (hoax? wapourware?). The true alternative is PearPC [link] . Also see [link] for some speculations.

bernie on 21/10/04 10:19AM
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I think this thing of two different ROS shall end. There should be an hardware standard, and a starndard OS, or at least a single installation that can then recognize the hardware. For such a small world as RiscOS one, it's impossible to think to have 2 different standards: this makes a few users per standard, and sentences the early death of this wonderful operating system. Merging the 2 systems and have one single strong product could finally leave some visible footmark on the computers scene, and probably generate a more accessible pricing range.

nodoubt73 on 28/10/04 8:54AM
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Grek1 on 28/10/04 1:31PM
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