As I work with the Raspberry Pi, I find the slow navigation of the Linux OS to be a bit underwhelming. An alternative OS seems to add a bit of needed speed.
To Raspberry Pi users there are not many operating systems to choose from. The three formerly available to download from the website include Raspian “wheezy,” Soft-float “wheezy,” and Arch Linux ARM. All are some type of variants of Linux. As of recently, users now have an another operating system to choose from. RISC OS (reduced instruction set computing) is an OS originally released in 1987 by Acorn, the same team which had helped develop ARM. It continues to be developed to this day.
The OS is free to download and offers a great way to become familiar with RISC computing. In addition, it has a working GUI and should run rather fast compared to the hardware it was originally designed to work on. Since the OS has been around for some time, there is plenty of resources and guides available to get new users started with the system. It is also nice to have an option available for an operating system, which is not Linux. However, Linux or not, it still gives users an environment where not everything is given. The Raspberry Pi was created to give users a learning device and spark an interest in programming. RISC OS has been resurrected to help fulfill that purpose.
Now it's time for RiscCAD Professional, ProCAD+, and machining software, I hope.
Cabe
