A9home first impressions review - RISC OS News, Software and Information

A9home first impressions review

Published: 5th Nov 2006, 21:08:20GMT Source: drobe.co.uk
By Paul Stewart

Page 3 of 3

Getting up close and personal with an A9home

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Benefits
So why buy the A9home when you can have a more powerful and more expandable Iyonix? Well I purchased mine for the following reasons:

RISC OS Adjust
It's faster than my RiscPC
It has better graphics capabilities than my RiscPC, as the SM501 includes some 2D acceleration and other features
On-board USB
On-board 10/100MBit Ethernet
The small foot print
AdvantageSix, aka Stuart Tyrrell Developments, have been in the RISC OS arena for many years with a good track record

I have been using the A9home since May 2005, and in September 2005, it became my primary computer, replacing my aging Risc PC. I took the decision to sell my trusty RiscPC for the following reasons:

It was taking up much needed space
The A9home could do most, if not all, that I needed the RiscPC for
The RiscPC was sitting in the corner gathering dust

Having sold the RiscPC in December, the A9home is my sole native RISC OS computer. It is stable save for WebsterXL, but then I think that is more WebsterXL than anything else. Both NetSurf and Oregano 2 appear to crash and burn the system every now and again, depending on the website you visit.

You can do wordprocessing with EasiWriter Pro and Fireworkz32; spreadsheet work with Schema2 and Fireworkz32; play MP3s with ROTunes, AMP, and DigitalCD; and watch MPEG videos with KinoAMP. Once the excitement over a new machine has died down, the A9home works pretty much like any other RISC OS computer, and a software compatibility list can be found on my website. The list can be updated by anyone.

Irritants
I have so far pinpointed three annoying issues with the A9home. The first being that sometimes the sound simply stops for no apparent reason. This results in the system requiring a full power cycle to get it working again.

The second annoying issue is the lack of printing. While it is possible to fudge this by replacing some Printers+ modules with their 32bit counterparts built by Castle, or simply copying the whole 32bit Castle Printers application across to the A9home, it is annoying that such a crucial application has not yet been 32bitted by RISCOS Ltd. I've also found that the Castle version I have obtained does not print via RemotePrinterFS, which is how I print. Come on ROL, make Printers+ 32bit compatible. The final irritation is the USB 1.1 issue. I simply can't believe Ad6 have stuck with USB 1.1. It is just too slow for copying large amounts of data to USB memory sticks.

Having described the above three annoying issues, another one springs to mind. This is the lack of newsgroup posting access. Receiving newsgroup postings is no problem. However I've found that I cannot post using Newshound. Firefox, Oregano 2, NetSurf, and WebsterXL refuse to work with Google Groups in allowing me to post messages, too. It's most annoying when I can only post from Google Groups on my Windows XP computer - the problems only seem to happen on the A9home.

Am I happy with the A9home? On the whole, yes, very much so. I'm sure you will be too. I've found that any limitations I've come across are not down to the device itself, but down to lack of available software or OS functionality. The box itself is quite stable as is the 32bit RISC OS Adjust.

Don't forget, if you are going to purchase an A9home, purchase it based on what it can currently achieve, and not what someone has said it may do in the future. That way you will not be disappointed if a talked about feature does not materialise.

An area I have not mentioned, but is quite important is product support. During the past year, email-based support from AdvantageSix has been, on the whole, good. Equally, on the occasion I've needed to telephone them, I've had nothing but good quality help. I think that in a market as small as RISC OS, it is essential that the support is this good. Being a niche market, it is often the case that a product's development team are also providing the end user support. This can be a burden on them, but it also means the programmers get pretty direct feedback from users.

Unfortunately, documentation is non-existent for the development pre-Wakefield 2006 mahine that I bought. I'm not sure the situation is any different for the machines being shipped as I type. I certainly did not receive any kind of welcome guide or even a quick start guide. You'd hope that full product documentation will be shipped out at some point. The only question now is: How much longer do RISCOS Ltd need to finish the operating system and its associated applications?

In summary
The A9home offers a much needed breath of life into an otherwise faltering RISC OS enthusiast market, much the same way the Iyonix did when it arrived on the scene. However it remains to be seen whether a single energetic spark of activity can revive an ever increasingly comatose market.

Compared to other available RISC OS hardware

Features	3/5
Expandability	1/5
Durability	5/5
Value for money	3/5

A9home Gallery
More pictures here. Click on a thumbnail for a larger image

Editor's notes: The A9home worked ok with the Drobe HQ's 15" Proview LCD monitor and the EDID system. An Advent MP3 player was recognised by the MassFS system once the line 066f:8000=LtT was added to the OtherDevs file. Users are expected to regularly check the customers-only area for firmware updates and other resources. Overall, the A9home feels roughly twice as fast as a RiscPC - click here for more benchmarks. The Filer generates thumbnails noticeably faster, and programs compile at a much faster rate on the A9home, compared to a StrongARM RiscPC. Using the A9home with a RiscPC and ShareFS to transfer files was also surprisingly quick and smooth. The A9home was able to transfer files to the RiscPC at 600KBytes/second via ShareFS, and to an ARM Linux server at 2400KBytes/second via FTP.

Links
A9home compatibility site
A9home website - costs 600 quid from CJE Micros
Maplin Flight Cases
RISCOS Ltd website

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caveman (+2.0) 5/11/06 11:48PM	A little correction. Other USB CD/DVD Drives are working. I have here a LG DVD Drive with an cheap IDE to USB adapter in use.
flypig (+2.0) 6/11/06 3:10AM	Nice article. As an A9Home user, this strikes me as a good, balanced review of the machine. It's not going to be all things to all people and Ad6 have always been open about the lack of expandability, but personally I've not felt this has held my use of the machine back. I'm sure many other people would find the same.
Pete 6/11/06 4:59PM	Thanks very good review, I really would like to buy one but I really have tooo many computers already, not even room for a little one.
EasyKees (+1.0) 6/11/06 8:24PM	Good review Paul, As for the printing issue: RPFS does work here on the A9home ( with printers+ and the Castle printerdriver) And thanks to the duplex pdf fromPaul Vigay I can even print both sides at once with my HP4550 color laserjet )
RickCB (+1.0) 6/11/06 11:26PM	Very interesting article . . . I am rather tempted but already have too many computers. If I didn't already have an Iyonix, I probably would order one though . . .
gdshaw 7/11/06 12:03AM	In reply to Pete and RickCB: Sorry, but how exactly can one have "too many computers"?
RickCB 7/11/06 12:07AM	Ah, it's purely a question of time and space - not enough of either! At last count I have my main Kubuntu Linux workstation, Windows XP Workstation, RiscPC, Castle Iyonix, AmigaOne, Amiga A1200 Tower, BBC Master 512, BBC Micro B, Sinclair QL, Amstrad PPC640 . . . too many already!!!
EasyKees 7/11/06 12:36AM	For RickCB: You have a BBC B and A BB MAster 512. Throw away the BBC B and you have space for at least 3 A9home computers. Don't take me too serious... but is easy to create space for an A9home.
RickCB 7/11/06 12:54AM	I couldn't possibly do that . . . it's the BBC B I had from new . . . and is probably why today I am an IT Consultant by profession!
sa110 (+1.0) 7/11/06 7:18AM	*In reply to RickCB:* You can always strap the A9home underneath your desk!
RickCB (+1.0) 7/11/06 7:45AM	Now there's a thought . . . actually, the only thing putting me off at the moment is the lack of USB2!
sa110 (+1.0) 7/11/06 8:12AM	*In reply to RickCB:* With all those other computers, would the lack of USB seriously be a problem. Besides, there is not really any USB devices that is available for RISC OS that requires USB 2. Card readers and memory sticks all work fine with USB1, just a little slower for accessing your files.
RickCB (+1.1) 7/11/06 9:25AM	Good point! But it's really the data transfer speed that bothers me!!!