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Linux and Netwinder - a Model for Acorn?


Where would I like to see Acorn go? To answer that let me refer to an Acorn Cybervillage news item for 1st July '98, "Corel to launch low cost but powerful 275MHz ARM-Linux computer".

The Netwinder, with

is on sale for $939. The prices suggested for the Medi (80Mb!) and the Peanut should be seen in the light of the Netwinder.

My dream would be a notebook Netwinder, with a RiscOS look and feel file manager, and with the Linux kernel, file manager and essential editing tools in an easily removable ROM.

Linux is much in the news these days. There are a lot of academics, for example, who, when supplied with a PC by their university, simply throw away the Microsoft software in exasperation and install Linux. What has held me back from doing the same has been

  1. The RiscOS GUI - none of the GUI's presently available for Linux are as good,
  2. Techwriter Professional,
  3. The security and relatively fast start up of Acorn machines, because the essentials are in ROM.

My belief/hope is that the Free Software Foundation and Linux have a secure future. Acorn could provide tremendous added value in this area, especially by developing and marketing a RiscOS look and feel GUI for Linux.

Gavin Wraith

Why Stop with Look and Feel? - RISC OS in ROM

Disagree? Then reply!

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