This page is written by an 'untechnical' for 'untechnicals'. If you are obsessed with jargon and numbers, then look somewhere else for that.

This page needs redoing. I may get around to it one day.

Note: There are some RISC OS music resources in The Music Dept.

A rather brief look at Acorn Acorn Computers designed and made computers from c.1978 to 1999. The last European desktop computer producers left, some of their most notable achievements have been: The amazing 8-bit BBC computer range The amazing ARM processor chip The amazing Archimedes and RiscPC computers which utilised this chip An amazing inability to market their brilliant products. When the 32-bit Archimedes computers were released back in 1987 they were the fastest, most powerful desktop computer in production and sported an amazingly advanced Operating System. It kicked the arse of MS-DOS and the Mac.   In 1994 the RiscPC was released and upgraded with the 202/233 MHz StrongARM processor in 1996, creating a very fast and responsive machine. All this on a Research and Development budget that probably wouldn't keep MicroSoft in toilet paper for a year!   With a proper marketing push, these computers should have had people ditching their dreary, slow and unreliable PCs, but a small company with a small advertising budget just couldn't do justice against the might of MicroSoft and IBM (plus the fact that Acorn Ltd. was adept at digging it's own hole without outside help ...snatching defeat from the jaws of victory ;-) ), thus Acorn machines instead remain one of the best kept secrets of the computing world.

Acorn/RISC OS machines - important ideas and stuff My comparisons with other platforms Comparing RISC OS to Windows9x (and MacOS), I can't honestly say that I've found Windows98+PIII to be faster for a normal mortal's use than RISC OS+StrongARM, despite the better 'figures'. RISC OS is efficient, easy and pretty logical for me (and many others), and it's developing more quickly now than ever before (no thanks to the now defunct Acorn Ltd.). The 'figures' don't tell you that the Acorn/RISC OS platform is arguably the most stable (for normal mortal's uses) out of RISC OS, Windows9x and MacOS, is resistant to all the strains of viruses prevalent on Macs/PCs (ha ha Melissa virus, LoveBug etc. he he :-) ) whilst having practically none of it's own, nor do they tell you about the extremely intuitive and responsive interface, but that's in the section below... The operating system - RISC OS (Acorn's) RISC OS has always been renowned for it's stability, responsiveness and intuitive front end (desktop). Primary school children use it with ease, it is tested to destruction everyday in hundreds of secondary school classrooms worldwide; others like me are very happy by not having to wait and fume using Windows or MacOS (anymore!). My version (RISC OS 4.02, which is not the latest version) as installed on my StrongARM equipped RiscPC really shows up Windows as a slow, quirky and unstable piece of software. Conveniently, my machine takes only 20 seconds to boot (with the standard (slow) factory boot), and less than 1 second to shutdown (still too slow, if you ask me!). A clean RISC OS4 boots in around 4 seconds. It is quick and responsive, intuitive to use and very stable. I realise that this last point may be contentious, but I can only bring the system down by being a silly bugger. I don't have the ANT internet suite though ;-) Don't forget, I'm not a long standing Acorn freak - I started out using Windows9x and Macs - and I am now converted. Windows 9x (especially) really is a load of cack, and to think that people (well a small percentage of suckers - I've not seen an original installation yet) have paid good money for it. Madness. Stability (resistance to 'crashes') is a good thing for computers, for it is a bugger to loose time and work, and I'm not afraid to say that this is one of my biggest grouches about PCs and Macs and much of their software. Before I was introduced to Acorn/RISC OS machines I was inflicted with the crash-prone machines and software made by the Other Companies (most memorably Mac/PC+Encore die, evil things!). If a little company like Acorn could get it reasonably well sorted, why can't those $$BIG$$ American companies?   Cynic mode - "Oh our upgrade will solve that, sir, but you'll need more/a better/faster <insert item here>..."

Intermission

Longevity A conversation... "Acorn...didn't they make the BBC B?" Yes, that's true. IBM...didn't they make the PC-XT? Often, people who should know better still think that the BBC range is the only thing ever made by Acorn computers. The BBC range displayed the incredible longevity present in all Acorn machines - some BBCs are still used today. What use is a PC-XT these days? Quite possibly contributing to Acorn's downfall was the longevity of their machines. Much high quality software written today will still run on any Acorn 32-bit machine (with the conditions stated below) right back to 1987, the year they were introduced! (Conditions set are usually: RISC OS3.1 or higher, and adequate memory - often a mere 2-4MB is sufficient!). Of course, these earlier machines are quite a bit slower that the current models, but compare that to a PC - Windows9x can hardly run in even 4MB (can it?!); PCs made before 1995 are pitifully slow (rather than adequate) and Y2K is, erm, dodgy at best. Desipite the long life of Acorns, I wouldn't bother looking at an old machine (pre-1994). It's amazing (and great for cash strapped schools) that the old models still work as well as they do, but if you want a true representation of a RISC OS machine (or indeed any computer), find the latest and fastest one you can! Any of the current series Acorn RiscPCs (introduced in 1994) are completely upgradable to the current standard (RISC OS4+StrongARM 233T) - (would you even consider touching a PC made in 1994?) So, why haven't you heard of Acorn/RISC OS computers recently? Acorn must've been the worst advertisers of an amazing product ever! Outside established Acorn circles they never seem to have advertised, and when 'killer apps' (e.g. Sibelius 7) showed Acorns to the Wintel/Mac world, Acorn plc didn't do enough to encourage Sibelius Software to keep an Acorn version under development! RISC OS is thus an incredible 'secret' to most folk. What software is available? Don't get sucked in by stupid people saying that Acorns have no software. It's hardly likely that I'd turn on this computer and stare at a blank screen for hours on end - hang on that sounds like Mucrosoft Windows booting up - or crashing...;-) I must complain though, that there is precious little sound/sample editing software for RISC OS right now...

 

A small bit about me and computers...