Latest news

RISC OS 5.30 now available

Posted by Steve Revill Sat, 27 Apr 2024 10:43:00 GMT

It feels like more than a year since doing the code reviews of which hardware platforms might meet the stable release criteria, attaining an even numbered long-term-supported version. So without further ado we’re proud to announce RISC OS 5.30 is now available for the seven platforms that met or exceeded benchmark.

It’s a bumper edition

The gestation time has allowed a bumper crop of 347 improvements to the ‘HardDisc4’ image and applications, and for the main operating system ‘ROM’ image around 329 improvements, the exact figure depends on which hardware you have.

Contributions came from far and wide, not least:

• Improvements from 6 currently active (or running during the period) bounties
• The army of 27 developers contributing to the Open Source held in GitLab
• Over 100 hours spent by ROOL coordinating the release activities
• Bernard, Stuart, Chris, John, David, Sprow, and Tank for picking over the User Guide for typos
• And not least the RISC OS community for testing (and sometimes breaking!) the intermediate nightly builds

For the first time, the OMAP5, most commonly used with the IGEPv5 hardware design, has switched to a stable release after resolving a previously blocking issue with its video driver. Nicely done!

Some serious bug squashing

Each new release of RISC OS 5 keeps building on the previous solid foundations. Along the way the following 76 tickets were resolved 630, 627, 626, 625, 621, 616, 615, 613, 611, 606, 604, 603, 601, 594, 593, 590, 585, 584, 583, 582, 581, 580, 577, 576, 574, 573, 572, 570, 568, 567, 566, 564, 563, 560, 559, 558, 556, 555, 554, 552, 551, 550, 549, 546, 545, 543, 541, 540, 539, 535, 533, 532, 531, 530, 525, 524, 519, 516, 515, 514, 513, 512, 510, 509, 508, 507, 505, 498, 497, 493, 480, 468, 459, 448, 378, 295, the oldest of which dated back to 2011.

RISC OS Pi also refreshed

For many new users the low cost Raspberry Pi computer is their first inroad into using RISC OS. The ready made SD card image has been refreshed to include:

• Ovation Pro desktop publishing application courtesy of David Pilling
• Out of the box WiFi support for those models which have the chip on board (3B, 3A+, 3B+, 4B, 400, Compute Module 4, Zero W and Zero 2W)
• The full read/write edition of SparkFS, now integrated into the standard distribution across all platforms
• Updates across the entire collection of applications which were previously bundled on RISC OS Pi
• The latest version 3.11 of the Open Source web browser NetSurf
• Toolbox example source code for developers to dig into
• Improved welcome instructions for those not familiar with RISC OS’ way of doing things

Getting installed

We recommend installing the HardDisc4 elements first, including updating the !Boot application. Once you’re happy that has gone smoothly it’s time to switch over the main operating system too.

If starting fresh, we also offer pre-imaged micro SD cards for Pi, Beagleboard, and Pandaboard, plus physical ROMs for the Risc PC/A7000/A7000+.

Want to read more?

A new edition of the User Guide has now been published to coincide with the release of RISC OS 5.30. Order your printed copy today spanning some 57 chapters on everything from formatting an NVMe drive to using the tinted brush tool in Paint.

Posted in Web site, New product, Community | 7 comments