RISC OS Now Available for Raspberry Pi

News
By Jane McEntegart
published

The retro OS makes a comeback.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation today announced the availability of RISC OS for its miniscule Raspberry Pi computer today. Initially released 25 years ago, RISC was designed for ARM architecture systems decades ago. Two and a half decades on from its 1985 release, the retro RISC is making a come back for Raspberry Pi users.

Eben, founder and trustee of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, announced the news via the Raspberry Pi blog and detailed that the OS is owned by Castle Technology, and these days is maintained by RISC OS Open Ltd. This specific version of RISC OS will be available free of charge for Raspberry Pi users.

Eben says users willing to try RISC can expect a fast boot and a smooth experience overall. Things should be even snappier now that Raspberry Pi packs double the RAM. You can grab the image here.

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Jane McEntegart
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4 Comments Comment from the forums
  • classzero
    Sounds RISCy.
    Sorry had to.
    Reply
  • stephenkendrick
    First, 1987, not 1985. It's right there on the page. Second, RISC is the architecture of the underlying CPU. RISC OS is the operating system. You're already 'willing to try RISC' as the ARM chip in the Pi is a derivative of that in the Acorn Archimedes which ran RISC OS. Don't drop the 'OS' - it makes no sense.
    Reply
  • barto
    I think is small article could lead to big news for the future. Considering ARM made the claim that there will be only Intel and ARM in the future, they are going to have to produce an OS that will operate RISC. Starting out with Pi is a good stepping stone.
    Reply
  • COLGeek
    While this availability makes for an interesting journey down memory lane for some of us, I don't see a great deal of utility here beyond the academic use of RISC OS on the Raspberry Pi.

    Nostalgia aside, not great deal of value here for most users.
    Reply