Dear Foundation member, News from RISC OS Ltd No. 9 8th May 2000 =============== Changes to RISCOS Ltd Board of Directors ---------------------------------------- The 1st Annual General Meeting of RISCOS Ltd was held on Friday 5th May. Aaron Timbrell has joined the Board along with Nick Way. They replace Laurie van Someren, Chris Evans, Bernard Bollons, Justin Fletcher and Matthew Bullock who retired after a very exhausting first year. The Annual Report will be available as a PDF download in about 3 weeks time. Ron - RISC OS on netBook ------------------------ There has been an entry on the Acorn Cybervillage - Heard on the Net pages - that RISCOS Ltd has dropped Ron due to lack of funds. Please note that this is a News and Rumours page and that only items with links to Web Sites are official statements. There has been no official statement from RISCOS Ltd on the future of the netBook project as it was not finally discussed at the AGM due to lack of time. If you want to show your support for Ron then please continue to send your details to mailto:ron@riscos.com ADSL is coming -------------- BTopenworld is a broadband Internet service powered by ADSL technology. No more dialling up ISP's, no more logging on because you're always online. For full details look at http://www.btopenworld.com The implications for RISC OS users are unclear at present. If you are a mixed PC and RISC OS user you will be able to connect via the sharing facilities of Windows 95 / 98 / 2000 as outlined in the last newsletter. It appears at present that you will need a USB enabled machine in order to connect to the BTopenworld service, which means that only the MicroDigital Mico machine is a possible RISC OS host at present. More news on this will follow as we get it. RISC OS Manuals CD ------------------ As an incentive to buy RISC OS 4 we will be offering a free copy of the Manuals CD with all RISC OS 4 purchases for a limited period, so place your order now if you are still undecided about buying RISC OS 4. Membership renewals.... ----------------------- Just a reminder that we extended the membership of everyone who joined in February, March, and April 1999 up until May 2000. Therefore if you joined on or before 31st May 1999 your date for renewal of Foundation membership is now 31st May 1999. Renewal forms will be going out throughout May and you can choose to pay by Standing Order and Automatic Credit Card payment as well as by Cheque. Mailing lists ------------- A reminder that a key aim of the Foundation was to be able to keep you all up to date with the activities of all the companies in the RISC OS Community. To that end we are making the list of Foundation Members and RISC OS 4 users available to the hardware and software partners of RISCOS Ltd. This data is not being sold, it is being given freely to promote the RISC OS cause. If you prefer not to have Spam eMail or Junk mail sent to you then please state your objections by sending an email to mailto:nojunk@riscos.com or by sending a written request to No Junk, RISCOS Ltd, 3 Clarendon Road, Cardiff, CF23 9JD New machines ------------ As usual at this time of year the rumour mills are working overtime with the Wakefield Show only 2 weeks away. Castle Technology have announced their new Kinetic Risc PC. See http://www.castle.org.uk/castle/kinetic.htm for full details. MicroDigital have their details at http://www.microdigital.co.uk/ RiscStation news can be found at http://www.riscstation.co.uk/html/what_s_new.html and finally Millipede are at http://www.millipede.co.uk/ It appears that many people thought that a 600 MHz StrongARM based computer was going to be available this summer. I think it is important to dispel those rumours as despite being a Cover Feature on Acorn User last August, Intel have not as yet released such a processor, and it would take many months after its launch for RISC OS to be adapted to support such a processor and for hardware developers to produce machines capable of supporting it. Consequently if you have been holding off from buying a new RISC OS computer then please don't wait any longer as it is simply impossible for there to be a 600 MHz machine within at least the next 6 months. You have a much wider range of RISC OS machines than ever before so why delay any longer before buying that new machine. Technical Support Help Line --------------------------- A reminder that times of the support line to 5.00 p.m until 8.30 p.m The RISC OS 4 Helpline is on 029 2049 2326 or email you query to mailto:support@riscos.com Enquiries for the Foundation and General Sales 029 2049 2324 from 10.00 am to 6.00 pm Monday - Saturday. Fax for all enquiries 029 2044 0071 Please quote your Foundation Membership Number on all enquiries Replying to queries from this Newsletter ---------------------------------------- If you are responding to a specific query in this newsletter please use the appropriate mailto: address to reply rather than replying to the sender of this email. Also don't reply to the general foundation or admin email addresses as your enquiry may not get dealt with promptly. We try to reply to all enquiries within 5 days. But at peak times it may take longer to reply. regards -- Paul Middleton RISCOS Ltd -----------------------------------------------------------------------