News from RISCOS Ltd No. 29 February 20th 2004 ================== Well it is amazing, but another year has passed and the interest in all things RISC OS seems to be as strong, if not stronger, than ever. RISCOS Ltd has entered its sixth year of trading and sales of RISC OS 4 still continue, when many people expected the market to have died years ago. The major news for RISCOS Ltd is the forthcoming release of a new version of RISC OS on ROM. For a number of reasons the version of RISC OS released back in July 1999 has remained the standard for the last 4 years. The Select scheme has enabled us to take RISC OS development forward and we have worked hard to fit the features of the 6 MB RISC OS Select softload ROM into a standard 4 MB physical ROM. The Select scheme has added many new features to the RISC OS experience and we are now making the latest features from the Select scheme available in a new batch of ROMs. The ROMs will shortly be available as an upgrade for Risc PC, Kinetic and A7000/+ computers. If you want the features of the RISC OS Select scheme without the need to softload the new ROM image, or you want the advantage of inbuilt support of DHCP networking, or the ability to boot directly from CD-ROM then the new ROMs are ideal for you. Full details of the features of RISC OS 4.39 will be available on the RISC OS Web site over the next week. Pricing for RISC OS 4.39 ROM sets --------------------------------- RISC OS 4.39 ROM set for upgrade of Risc PC / A7000 running 3.x £140 inc VAT * RISC OS 4.39 ROM set for upgrade of Risc PC / A7000 running 4.x £125 inc VAT * RISC OS 4.39 ROM set for subscribers of the Select scheme £105 inc VAT Subscribers to the Select scheme may deduct a further £10 for each additional year they have been members of the scheme. e.g a Select subscriber for 3 years pays £105 - (2 x £10) (for two additional years) = £85 inc VAT Subscribers to the Select scheme who joined within the last 9 months will be eligible for special discounts. Please contact us for further details. Optionally you may part-exchange your existing RISC OS 4.02 ROM set for a further discount of £10 off the above prices. e.g a Select subscriber for 3 years pays £105 - (2 x £10) - £10 = £75 whilst a RISC OS 4 user who part exchanges their RISC OS 4 ROM set will pay just £115. N.B This batch of ROMs is strictly limited to a production run of 150 ROM sets. Orders will be taken on a first come, first served basis. The production of further ROMs will be dependent on the take-up of the main batch. (usual dealer discounts apply to items marked *) Standard RISC OS 4.02 ROMs will continue to be available, but will be subject to new pricing from 1st March 2004. An advance order form for the RISC OS 4.39 ROMs is available for download from the RISCOS Ltd web site. Follow the links at the bottom of the http://www.riscos.com/ home page. Upgrade process --------------- Users who wish to upgrade from RISC OS 4.02 to 4.39 will not be required to return their old ROM sets until they have installed the new 4.39 ROM. If the old ROMs are not returned within 28 days then the additional £10 charge will be made. The RISC OS 4.39 ROM set will be supplied on Flash ROM chips that can be upgraded to later versions as they become available. The same process will apply for future updates in that new ROMs will be despatched and the old Flash ROMs returned. If demand for RISC OS 4.39 ROMs is sufficient then we may move over to supplying RISC OS 4.39 on OTP ROMs. This will have require a substantial commitment to advance orders. RISC OS 4.39 FAQ ---------------- Q. Once I have upgraded to RISC OS 4.39 will I be able to revert to using RISC OS 4.02 as I currently do with RISC OS Select? A. No. Once you have installed the RISC OS 4.39 ROM you will only be able to run RISC OS 4.39 or versions of RISC OS Select. --------- Q. Will I still be able to use my RISC OS 4 !Boot sequence with RISC OS 4.39? A. No. You will have to update to the new RISC OS Select style Boot sequence. --------- Q. Will I have to upgrade my hard disc to use the RISC OS 4 E+ disc format? A. Yes. RISC OS 4.39 will require you to start using the new RISC OS 4 disc format, which provides long filename support and almost unlimited files in individual directories. --------- Q. How much memory do I need to run RISC OS 4.39? A. 16 MB is the minimum advised, though with certain types of memory chips fitted 32 MB will need to be fitted. A bonus feature of the RISC OS 4.39 ROMs is that on many Kinetic StrongARM cards it will now be possible to use a 256 MB SO-DIMM chip on the Kinetic card along with 256 MB on the motherboard thus giving a 510MB machine. --------- Q. Will I still be able to install future RISC OS Select updates on top of a machine running RISC OS 4.39? A. Yes. We still intend to develop the RISC OS Select Scheme and Select updates and these will be able to be loaded on a RISC OS 4.39 machine. -------- Q. I have a Virtual Acorn computer. Will I be able to use RISC OS 4.39? A. Yes. There will be a new RISC OS 4.39 ROM image available solely for users who have registered their copy of RISC OS 4 purchased with a Virtual Acorn based product with RISCOS Ltd. --------- Q. Will there be a software bundle provided with RISC OS 4.39? A. Only the standard RISC OS applications will be provided. Third party applications such as !Writer and !Vector will not be provided. --------- Q. Will RISC OS 4.39 be available for use with Iyonix computers. A. Not at the present time. RISC OS 4.39 has been developed to be capable of building 32 bit compatible versions, but many of the higher level features of Select (upon which 4.39 is based) rely on low level changes to the kernel that are not currently present in the RISC OS 5 kernel and supporting modules. RISCOS Ltd is committed to making the new features of Select available to all RISC OS users but it also requires the co-operation and support of the hardware manufacturers. New RISC OS 4.02 pricing from 1st March 2004 -------------------------------------------- Due to recent Postage changes and the costs of the consumables used to produce and ship RISCOS Ltd products, we have reviewed the prices of all RISC OS products. The result is that there are price changes to some products. RISC OS 4.02 Full User Pack increases from £85 to £95 RISC OS 4.02 ROM only pack increases from £75 to £84 Forthcoming Shows ----------------- RISC OS SOUTHWEST 04 =================== The RISC OS SOUTHWEST show will be taking place on Saturday 28th February 2004. The event will once again be taking place at the Webbington Hotel, North Somerset, starting at 10am and finishing 4.30pm. Exhibitors taking part include: APDL, Archive, AAUG, Castle, CJE Micros, David Snell, EFF, Finnybank Ltd, Fortran Friends, Peter Naulls, Photodesk, R-Comp, Ray Favre, RISCOS Ltd, SSS, StrongArm Systems, ARM Club, ITC, Oregano and Virtual A5000. The theatre will take place once again, with talks from Castle, RISCOS Ltd and Finnybank. There will be a FREE minibus shuttle service from Weston-super-Mare train station. Entrance is 3ukp adults, 2ukp Foundation/ARM Club members and unders 16's FREE. Please come and support the only RISCOS show in South West England. More information available at www.argonet.co.uk/acornshow User Group Meetings ------------------- A reminder that I am always happy to visit User Groups to demonstrate RISC OS Select, RISC OS 4.39 or just talk generally about the RISC OS market. Standing Order Renewals ----------------------- We continue to have a large number of problems with administering Standing Order payments. Common problems are Banks who don't pay the Standing Order, subscribers not changing the amount due to match the latest price, people who forget they have paid by Standing Order and renew by Cheque or Credit Card as well, etc etc. Checking that payments have been made has been taking an increasing amount of time, so we have reluctantly decided to not accept any new requests for payment by Standing Order. We would also ask that members who currently pay by Standing Order should cancel any mandates they have for payments to RISCOS Ltd and that other payment methods are established either by Cheque or Credit Card. Replying to queries from this Newsletter ---------------------------------------- If you are responding to a specific query in this newsletter please use the appropriate mailto: address to reply rather than replying to the sender of this email. Also don't reply to the general foundation or admin email addresses as your enquiry may not get dealt with promptly. We try to reply to all enquiries within 5 days. But at peak times it may take longer to reply. regards -- Paul Middleton RISCOS Ltd 3 Clarendon Road Cardiff CF23 9JD Tel 02920 492324 Fax 02920 492326 mailto:paul@riscos.com Copyright ©2004 RISCOS Ltd.