A fast and easily customised operating system for ARM devices

Getting RISC OS Software

RISC OS has a diverse range of free and commercial software available and there are a few different ways to get hold of it.

Package Manager

The RISC OS Pi distro includes an application called “PackMan” which is a package manager similar to that found on Debian (Linux) systems. Package management is a relatively new addition to RISC OS so it’s not yet widely supported but more existing software is being converted into packages all the time, meaning the range available should keep increasing.

You should find PackMan on your desktop pinboard – just left double-click to start it. There’s lots of information about using PackMan in its help pages. The RISC OS Pi package repository is hosted at packages.riscosopen.org/.

!Store (plingstore)

There is a RISC OS store under development, which aims to be the first place to go for obtaining commercial RISC OS software. The desktop application (pictured left) is fully working and you should see it on your desktop pinboard.

!Store has an associated web portal at http://www.plingstore.org.uk/. At the time of writing, this is a work-in-progress so keep checking to see how it’s getting on.

You can also find free software with !Store. There is some overlap with packages available through PackMan so you should probably try PackMan first for those.

The NutPi Pack

RISC OS Open are selling an add-on pack, called the NutPi. This contains some of the best commercial software for RISC OS, for a very low price. The NutPi pack software has been built specifically for the Raspberry Pi and greatly enhances the range of features available over the free distro.

The NutPi includes:

Comprehensive bitmap graphics package (PhotoDesk)
A desktop calendar, diary, address book and much more (Organizer)
An email package and associated tools (Messenger)
Two powerful database packages (DataPower and Impact)
A fully-functional backup application (SafeStore)
Tools for creating and accessing compressed files and archives (SparkFS read/write)
A word processor supporting MS Word file import (Writer+)
The full RISC OS Desktop Development Suite and a range of other useful software (including WimpWorks)
Gutenprint, luafox, MoreDesk, CloneDisc, and more…

You can buy the NutPi on SD card from here.

Other Resources

There are also lots of RISC OS web sites covering news, events and other information that you can look at to get ideas for other software to download. Some examples are given below: