Web site: www.riscosopen.org | www.riscos.com
Origin: United Kingdom
Category: Desktop, Embedded
Desktop environment: GUI
Architecture: RiscPC, RaspberryPi, A7000, RPCemu, OMAP3 BeagleBoard, OMAP4 (PandaBoard), XScale Iyonix
Based on: Independent
Wikipedia: RISC OS
Media: Install
The last version | Released: active
Zobacz po polsku: RISC OS
RISC OS (Reduced Instrcution Set Computer Operating System) – an OS for desktop computers running ARM processors. RISC OS was originally developed by Acorn Computers Ltd in Cambridge, England has been in continual development since 1989.
The first version of RISC OS was originally released in 1987 as Arthur 1.20.
Whilst RISC OS is designed for use on ARM processors modern emulation means that RISC OS can be run on both Windows and MacOS X computers. Products such as VirtualAcorn can run RISC OS (and RISC OS apps) many times quicker than any real RISC OS based hardware. There are also a number of free emulators such as RPC-Emu that can run various different versions of RISC OS on a number of platforms.
Acorn officially halted work on the OS in January 1999 renaming to Element 14. In March 1999 a new company, RISCOS Ltd, licensed the rights to develop a desktop version of RISC OS from Element 14, and continued the development of RISC OS 3.8, releasing it as RISC OS 4 in July 1999.
Castle Technology bought RISC OS. In October 2006, Castle announced a shared source license plan, managed by RISC OS Open Limited, for elements of RISC OS 5.
In October 2018, RISC OS 5 was re-licensed under the Apache 2.0 license.
In 2018 RISC OS Developments acquired Castle Technology Ltd including its intellectual property.
RISC OS Open Limited (ROOL) manages the source code to RISC OS. We are an organisation run on a largely voluntary basis. We also offer specialist professional services to anyone who is interested in developing products around the Arm architecture or RISC OS.
