Castle buys RISC OS from Pace - RISC OS News, Software and Information

Castle buys RISC OS from Pace

Published: 4th Jul 2003, 11:23:12GMT Source: drobe.co.uk
By Chris Williams

Page 1 of 1

All your OS are belong to us

Castle Technology have this morning etched another mark in the history of RISC OS by buying RISC OS from the previous corporate owner Pace. The purchase went for an undisclosed sum. As part of the deal, Pace get an intellectual property rights licence to the RISC OS technology.

Also, an embedded version of RISC OS will be produced from a joint venture with Castle and Tematic Ltd. for "smart multimedia products". This is presumably another attempt to throw RISC OS in to the set top box and consumer electronics market.

Castle say this acquisition of RISC OS will "ensure that RISC OS products continue into the future". After the Acorn breakup in 1998, RISC OS was bought by Pace and the rights to develop and distribute a desktop version of RISC OS was granted to RISCOS Ltd. in the form of a licence. Now RISC OS is firmly in the grasp of Castle, who of course now own the OS. This means RISC OS is firmly back inside the platform community rather than hanging from a licence with a corporation.

"The purchase of this technology combines perfectly with our expertise in manufacturing and marketing RISC OS computers (illustrated by our recent success with the launch of the IYONIX pc). This deal will allow us to be at the heart of exciting new products", explained Jack Lillingston, Castle's Managing Director. "RISC OS provides a proven, small-footprint solution, for cutting edge products such as handheld media devices; we are all very excited with this new development and relish the future for RISC OS".

Anthony Dixon, Company Secretary of Pace added, "We wish Castle every success for the future". Pace is looking forward to maintaining support for their existing RISC OS based products.

The impact of today's move by Castle and Pace on other RISC OS licencees and sub-licencees is unknown at the moment. The 4th of July is American Independence day, and perhaps now RISC OS independence day.

More details to follow.

Links
Castle press release
Castle website
Pace website

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piemmm 4/7/03 11:52AM	Wew!,.... er,... so I can only see Microdigital as being (if at all) an existing licencee(spelt)... What happens when that expires?
jonix 4/7/03 11:52AM	Incredible.
harmsy 4/7/03 12:06PM	Cool - read this first on riscos.org though! -- Andrew Harmsworth, Cambridge. www.gcse.com owner and author
Animal 4/7/03 12:31PM	Fantastic, Castle certainly know how to surprise people.
Spriteman 4/7/03 12:33PM	I'd been hoping that something like this would happen for some time now. Now, the interesting question is how the relationship between CTL and ROL will develop. Hopefully they will work more closely. Sharing resources where it is in their interests to do so. What would be ideal is ROL developing Select upgrades and selling them independently. Select improvements would also go right back to CTL and be shipped with the new Iyonixes. ..or something like that. -- Spriteman.
fylfot 4/7/03 12:33PM	This is amazing news. Having produced the Iyonix pc and now buying RISC OS itself, Castle deserve MUCH respect. Place your orders now, methinks!
jlavallin 4/7/03 12:48PM	Just Brill!! A RISC OS hardware needed to take this on .ROL has a new partner What price a new laptop from Tematic?
thegman 4/7/03 12:54PM	Woohoo!
Martyn Fox 4/7/03 1:03PM	I'd thought in the past that it would be interesting if Castle bought RISCOS Ltd. This, though, is a whole new ball-game! Martyn
thegman 4/7/03 1:07PM	It's great that after so much bad news from MD, RS, and the overall state of the market that this happened. Probably the best news in the RISC OS market for years. With full control over RISC OS and it's source, they could do an enormous amount for the platform. I think there will be a great deal of news and ructions which will come from this, the future of ROL, MD, RS to name but a few.
jlavallin 4/7/03 1:16PM	Some bridge building is in order How about a large joint stand at Bett 2004 holding Castle ,Microdigital,Riscstation and ROL. Lets shout this platforms positive features.
AMS 4/7/03 1:46PM	Surprise is not the word for it ! Yet I am pleased to see that a company with a vested interest in maintaining ROS as a desktop environment now has control of the OS source and licensing. This puts things on a more secure footing. Good news overall. -- Annraoi McShane,
vshears 4/7/03 2:44PM	Yes I full aggree that this must help to give the futture of RISC OS some stability. I just hope that Castle do not use their position as owner of the OS to sidline other hardware develpopers. -- Victor Shears, Maidstone
flibble 4/7/03 2:58PM	Castle will do whatever is in their best commercial interest to do. While you as a user may feel you are part of a RISC OS community the buisnesses involved (if they have any sense) would rather like to become dominant and in a position to sell more things and make money ... at the expense of their competitors. Nice world init
SparkY 4/7/03 3:01PM	This is absolutely stunning and absolutely fantastic! Next we need a platform identity - bring back the Acorn nut! Well done Castle, this takes away most of my concerns about buying an Iyonix! -- Gavin Smith
Martyn Fox 4/7/03 3:17PM	"Next we need a platform identity - bring back the Acorn nut!" Castle are the new Acorn. How about a Castellated nut? Martyn
thegman 4/7/03 3:20PM	Having Acorn-branded stuff again would be fantastic. RiscStation have not really got anything to offer, but MD may do soon. I would not blame Castle for a second if they did decide to give MicroDigital the finger. All I want to see is active development of good, value for money RISC OS software and hardware, if this is acheived by one company or many, not really that bothered.
Martyn Fox 4/7/03 3:20PM	"I just hope that Castle do not use their position as owner of the OS to sidline other hardware develpopers." Let's hope that they don't employ Bill Gates as a marketing consultant, then. Martyn
Martyn Fox 4/7/03 3:23PM	"Now, the interesting question is how the relationship between CTL and ROL will develop." Presumably, when the Select 3 CD appears, the startup banner, instead of saying "Copyright Pace" will have to say "Copyright Castle Technology Ltd." Martyn
Martyn Fox 4/7/03 3:26PM	"Having Acorn-branded stuff again would be fantastic." Does anybody know who currently owns the brand name "Acorn Computers"? Perhaps Castle could buy that as well. Martyn
drjones69 4/7/03 3:32PM	I seem to remember someone laughing and poking fun at me a while ago when I suggested something like this would be a good idea. Now I'm not one to say I....Oh to hell with it - I told you so, nah nah na na nah!!! I'm now going to sit, looking smug for a while until someone pokes fun at me again. Best of luck Castle, I (and I'm sure many others) wish you every success -- Ryan Hitch, Cottingham PS. Martyn > Castle already the rights to the Acorn brand.
thegman 4/7/03 3:37PM	Absolutley, Castle is kicking arse, taking names, RISC OS may well have turned a corner here.
_Jez_ 4/7/03 4:01PM	*In reply to Martyn:* I believe Castle already own/have the rights to the Acorn brand name.
Smiler 4/7/03 4:03PM	What we really need now is for ROL and CTL to bring RO4 and 5 together. Perhaps RO 6? Then there could be two versions with identical features and capabilited - therefore all software will work with both. The only diferene is one is 32-bit, the other 26-nit for the respective platforms (Ionyx and RiscPC/Omega). The there wont be any jealousy! Smiler - Alex Melhuish
Martyn Fox 4/7/03 4:22PM	"I believe Castle already own/have the rights to the Acorn brand name." Do they actually own it, or do they just have the right to use it on their RiscPCs and A7000s? They haven't used it on the Iyonix. Martyn
Gulli 4/7/03 4:31PM	Doesn't (or at least didn't) Pace own everything Acorn, including the nut and the trademark? Maybe that came with the deal. Great news for RISC OS BTW, I think Castle have been the only ones of the top players with a real sight of the future. Now all that's left is Castle buying up RISCOS Ltd. and integrating Select into RO 5. If Castle does own the Acorn brand, maybe it's time for to rename the OS, Acorn OS for example. -- Gunnlaugur Jonsson, Copenhagen, Denmark
AndrewDuffell 4/7/03 4:38PM	I don't really know much about castle and the ownership of the Acorn brand, but when I emailed them last year they denied that they owned the "Acorn Nut Device" logo. They pointed me towards HH
jess 4/7/03 4:45PM	Gary Numan on Top of the Pops tonight, Castle buy RISC OS, now if I could just get a girlfriend, life would be perfect -- Jess
moss 4/7/03 4:59PM	Blimey.
imj 4/7/03 5:28PM	So that's it. We're buggered. RISC OS is in the questionable hands of Castle-"We like crufty old versions and ugly icons"-Technology now, rather screwing-over ROL with a large pole. I for one think this is pretty terrible news and I'm greatly saddened. John Ballance has always said he doesn't see the point of Select (Must be bloody stupid) and now he presumably has inherited the rights from Pace to shut it down (although the fee from ROL would possibly come in handy still) It also presumably marks the death of Omega. TTBOMK MD had no licence from Pace/ROL for RO4 for Omega, and do you think CTL will sell their OS to their competitors? Ha! Wonder what (if anything) MD have to say on this. Time to find another OS, lads - this one's gone all rotten and smelly now.
mavhc 4/7/03 7:37PM	Ugly icons, that's your case? Go buy a Mac. ROL and Castle seem to be getting on OK, witness Castle's new !Printers on ROL's site. Why would MD need permission from Pace/Castle to sell ROS4?, that's up to ROL. Since not enough people bought ROS4 for ROL to be able to fund a 32bit update from the sales they've always been slightly doomed, especially since they couldn't get the hardware partners to pay for updates in advance. It's easier to hide the cost of the OS if it's bundled with your hardware. Good news: 1 We know ROS won't die due to Pace not wanting it. 2 Castle can continue to update ROS, and have more incentive to now, as the cost has been paid up front. Bad news: IF Castle don't play nicely with the other children. But they could either a) let them continue to work with ROL, or b) hire them, make one big(ger) company. Some of the problems with MD and RS were due to their size. Question: Would you buy a 32bit ROS with the features from Select for your RPC considering the 26bit software/emulation issue?
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