Can Acorn Ltd. be reincarnated?

What is needed is a clear strategy on how to increase the currently decreasing RISC OS user base, to the level where great software packages like ArtWorks, Photodesk, Ovation Pro, TopModel and Sibelius7 can be written and developed since there would be a market able to sustain it. It’s symptomatic that over the last 10 years, no new RISC OS software has been written matching the qualities of the above programs, simply because the necessary market(s) is absent.

To think RISC OS will survive if only used by a handful enthusiasts mainly on single-board computers (using maybe 20% of their total CPU/GPU capacities) is totally unrealistic. It won’t recruit new users, nor encourage state-of-the art software development. RISC OS can only survive in the long run by being able to fully use the most modern (Arm) CPU’s, have a very user friendly SDK and transparently emulate legacy software at decent speed. Which stands a better chance of happening if the RISC OS developers unify under a single company/project. RISC OS is too promising to only be described in near future history books on computing.

Yawn

JFYI, our world is not one where incantations work. If you not do it, nobody will.

And it’s a non sense too. You say there is no new software because nobody wants to bet money on RISC OS. And your solution is to bet money on a new company? Really? To unify developers? There are already two companies for this: ROD and ROOL. You wan’t a third one?

Nota, there is new software for RISC OS. So always the same question: do you own and use a RISC OS 5 system? I don’t expect any answer, and I’m pretty sure you’ll bounce once again on another topic.

My currently sordid economy plus very high UKP/NOK exchange rate has hindered me from ordering a RISC OS version which’ll run on the Okda Rock 4 C+ SBC I won in a recent competition they held. Your very foggy reply to “new software” doesn’t address whether it has the same user friendliness and productivity in the graphics/DTP sector as those mentioned. There isn’t even a RISC OS version of Xara Extreme!

And you missed totally out on the unification idea – even if ROOL and ROD plus sundry 3rd parties who could contribute are located far apart, this is no hindrance from working online using GitHub or such under a single company umbrella.

In short you’re Borg, assimilated from head to feet. Be sorry that didn’t stick on me.

very high UKP/NOK exchange rate has hindered me from ordering a RISC OS version which’ll run on the Okda Rock 4 C+ SBC

So you won’t be providing the £20m you claimed was needed to covert RISC OS to a 64 bit world class desktop/phone operating system?

I’m gutted I tell you, gutted.

Mr. Ruck, that’s the most daft question I’ve heard in a while. A handful Norwegians appear to pull moneys out of their arse several times a day, but from what I’ve written I cannot comprehend how you think I’m one of them. Things may improve if a certain company takes up the product which I won that Rock SBC, but until that eventually happens I’m in the lowest income bracket in this country. Go figure.

My currently sordid economy

Haven’t you noticed? It’s everybody’s economy, not just yours.

plus very high UKP/NOK exchange rate

?

In 2017 it was “about 11”, now it’s “about 13½”.
Yes, it’s more, but it’s not that big a change.

If it was in stock, Distrilec Norway would sell you a Pi 3B+ and a box for 119,25NOK.
According to Google that’s 10 freaking euros.
https://www.elfadistrelec.no/en/raspberry-pi-model-with-case-raspberry-pi-rpi-3b-rpi-case-rw/p/30135055?itemList=featured

It would cost me nearly five times that and that’s not including a box… https://www.kubii.com/fr/cartes-raspberry-pi/2119-raspberry-pi-3-modele-b-1-gb-kubii-652508442174.html
(if it were in stock ;) )

Your very foggy reply to “new software” doesn’t address whether it has the same user friendliness and productivity in the graphics/DTP sector as those mentioned.

No, there’s no new software in that sector, because ArtWorks and PhotoDesk are still available and still being updated from time to time. David has only recently stopped working with OvationPro (having, like, retired) and he’s made the sources available so somebody else can take it on if they wish.
Sibelius jumped ship a long time ago.

There isn’t even a RISC OS version of Xara Extreme!

Strawman – there isn’t a RISC OS version of Word, or PowerPoint, or Excel.
And…?

this is no hindrance from working online using GitHub or such under a single company umbrella.

It’s you that missed. This already exists. It’s called ROOL, and the source is on a Github-ish system where people contribute, nightly ROMs are built and…

I fail to see how another company (even if calling itself Acorn) adds any value whatsoever.

Or, in more succinct terms: there’s already a central resource for the OS source code, we don’t need another.

Be sorry that didn’t stick on me.

The f….??

I’m not even…

Mr. Ruck, that’s the most

Allow me:

Whoooosh!

I’m in the lowest income bracket in this country

Me too, but I can prioritise.

Cigarettes, drugs, and booze? No.
Linguine, chocolate, and Playmobil? Hell yeah.

😂

Seriously, though. Don’t get takeaway pizza three times, there’s your shiny new Pi.

I don’t socialise, drink, or smoke. I’ve given up on regular trips to Big Town and only go a few times in a year, plus I’ve given up on fast food.
All of which means that I can walk around “the middle of Lidl” (always a dangerous place) and still put a decent amount into savings each month. And I do that on a wage so crap I automatically qualify for “extra help” (not a lot, but still).
Biggest help, I suppose, is that it’s just me and I’m very very introvert so spending a week or two of my holiday time by myself and not interacting with other humans isn’t a trauma, it’s a blessing. Peace and quiet!
Anyway, I recently bought another Vonets because the WiFi is a bit flaky this time of year. I haven’t gotten myself a Pi4 not because I couldn’t afford it, but simply because I don’t need it. The machine in the living room that I’ve been using recently (and wrote SimpleSeq on) is a Pi 2. Most RISC OS apps were written with the expectations of RiscPC era hardware, like a 40MHz processor and maybe 16MB RAM. Sure, the GCCSDK stuff needs just a tad more for all the shared libraries, but you mentioned OvationPro, ArtWorks, etc. So a Pi2 is plenty, a Pi3 is better, and really for my use case that suffices. I don’t need more.

I haven’t even gotten myself a cheap laptop with Windows because, really, what the hell would I do with it? My main non-RISC OS behaviour is websites, YouTube, Netflix, and listening to Epic Rock Radio. I have a cool little box for the radio, and my phone takes care of the rest. I need a Windows laptop like I need a Pi 4.

Especially if you flog the Rock 4C+.

My currently sordid economy plus very high UKP/NOK exchange

You can’t buy a Pi? Really?

Your very foggy reply to “new software”

I spent each year several hundred euros on new software or major updates.
My ‘commercial software’ directory is 6.6GB.
I’ll not list all of them, sorry.

this is no hindrance from working online using GitHub or such under a single company umbrella.

You just gave a definition of what ROOL does.

In short you’re Borg, assimilated from head to feet. Be sorry that didn’t stick on me.

Easy. At least I do use RISC OS. You don’t. Come back when you will.
(You can’t beat me at trolling, sorry)

I’m gutted I tell you, gutted.

Excellent!

Linguine, chocolate, and Playmobil? Hell yeah.

:)

You can’t beat me at trolling

He’s Norwegian, that’s literally where trolls come from.

(do you have Netflix? if so, look for the film “Troll”)

Since it sounds like you can run Windows applications like Xara, a cheaper alternative to a Pi would be to run RISC OS 5 under RPCEmu, which is free to use, runs much faster than a real RiscPC and should run the vast majority of applications available for RISC OS today.

My currently sordid economy plus very high UKP/NOK exchange rate has hindered me from ordering a RISC OS version which’ll run on the Okda Rock 4 C+ SBC I won in a recent competition they held.

You appear to have a computer (or two if you’re using the “Okda Rock 4 C+ SBC” to run Linux) which you are using to log on here.
Logging on to the RPCEmu website allows you to download an emulator, for a rather old version of RO machine, but still new enough to run the RO5 version supplied with the bundled package on that site.

Then we’re into the realms of use of cross-compilers or native, if you have the talent for programming; or if you don’t, the opportunity to run the current beta, make notes on how it compares with the documented behaviour and update the online documentation to properly describe the behaviour.

Or looking at the OS messages files and translating to something that isn’t English, because apparently a lot of the world doesn’t speak English and insist on using their own not-English and then avoid systems that don’t respond in their chosen not-English.

“The Troll Hunter”, Mr. Murray.. starring the deadpan (usually not) genius comedian Otto Jespersen; “There aren’t any Christians* here, are there?”.

• Favourite Troll cuisine. Very crunchy.

I get the impression that your preferred not-English is Troll, but I was expecting a set of translations to a north European language.

Oh well, I suppose Troll makes a change from Klingon

“The Troll Hunter”, Mr. Murray…

No, Mr. Tengelsen. You’re referring to a film from 2010. I’m referring to one from 2022. GIYF.