RISC OS Direct

Whats the difference between RISC OS Open and RISC OS Direct? What I can see is, that RISC OS Direct has more programs. Is anything else different?

Micky

Whats the difference between RISC OS Open and RISC OS Direct? What I can see is, that RISC OS Direct has more programs.

That’s pretty much it, I think. Direct is just a “ready to go” disc image, containing the ROOL OS and a collection of pre-assembled software.

Is anything else different?

If anything, the nightly ROOL builds are very likely more up to date than whatever is in Direct as far as OS improvements and bug fixes go: as far as I know, the ROD team don’t update Direct whenever there’s a new build.

The point of Direct is that’s it’s easy to install and ready to go: aimed at those who don’t currently use RISC OS, or those who don’t mind waiting for upgrades to the OS in exchange for an easy set-up. It isn’t keeping in step with the latest developments – in some ways similar to only installing the stable even-numbered builds from ROOL.

The point of Direct is that’s it’s easy to install and ready to go: aimed at those who don’t currently use RISC OS, or those who don’t mind waiting for upgrades to the OS in exchange for an easy set-up.

Ready to go in OS terms, and also ready to go with a collection of software from third parties – much like a number of Linux distros.

Also, it can be used by the generic user as a starting point for a “bleeding edge” setup by taking the ROD image and then updating the ROM image with a nightly build.
As long as they don’t keep personal data that isn’t backed up on the setup there’s no problem that can’t be fixed with a re-image (and update with the previous beta ROM to the one that broke)

as far as I know, the ROD team don’t update Direct whenever there’s a new build.

It would make sense to stick with the “stable” releases.

by taking the ROD image and then updating the ROM image with a nightly build.

Yup. As long as the firmware doesn’t need fiddled with (much less an issue now than in the past), it’s pretty much a case of downloading the ROM image, putting it in the right place, then rebooting.

there’s no problem that can’t be fixed with a re-image (and update with the previous beta ROM to the one that broke)

Just rename the older “riscos.img” to something like “previous.img” and if something blows up then you just need to pop the SD card into something else (that can ‘see’ the FAT part) to swap ’em back.

For the more adventurous, you could look at the bootloader GPIO options to set it up to automatically load the earlier ROM if two pins are linked; thus making it easier to revert to a working ROM.