The Icon Bar: General: RiscOS 4.39 - To upgrade or not to upgrade?
| |
RiscOS 4.39 - To upgrade or not to upgrade? |
| |
winterhunter (06:37 25/5/2007)
filecore (08:07 25/5/2007)
VincceH (08:14 25/5/2007)
winterhunter (09:46 25/5/2007)
fwibbler (10:52 25/5/2007)
illuminatius (11:06 25/5/2007)
winterhunter (10:12 28/5/2007)
|
| |
|
Gonzalo Meza |
Message #102438, posted by winterhunter at 06:37, 25/5/2007 |
Member
Posts: 105
|
Dear all,
I'm a RiscOS newbie (bought a S/H RiscPC some time ago, but finally managed to get a monitor that synchs with the video signal only last week).
The computer has a SA-110 @ 233 MHz processor, 98 MB RAM and 2 MB VRAM. The installed ROMS are 4.02.
Is there any benefit from upgrading to 4.39? When doing so, do I need to format and install everything? I don't have the installation disks/CDs for LOTS of stuff that the previous owner had installed.
Thanks!
Regards,
Gonzalo |
| |
 [ Log in to reply ] |
| |
|
Jason Togneri |
Message #102439, posted by filecore at 08:07, 25/5/2007, in reply to message #102438 |
Posts: 3867
|
Since the OS is ROM-based (ie, on a chip), up- or downgrading it doesn't actually touch the hard drive at all. In fact, you don't even need to have a hard drive installed, so if you're worried you can take it out during the installation. There might be things which don't work in a later version of RISC OS, but that I wouldn't know about - I'm stuck with two RiscPCs, one without VRAM, with an ARM710 and RO 3.6, the other with a 2MB VRAM, a StrongARM 202MHz and 3.7. So either way you're better off than I am... |
| |
[ Log in to reply ] |
| |
|
VinceH |
Message #102440, posted by VincceH at 08:14, 25/5/2007, in reply to message #102438 |
 Lowering the tone since the dawn of time
Posts: 1600
|
What he said.
I'm not aware of any major software incompatabilities where something that works on 4.02 won't work on 4.39, so I suspect you'll probably be okay to upgrade.
AAMOI, since you're already running 4.02, did the previous owner reformat the hard drive when performing that upgrade to get long file names?
(If you aren't sure, just try saving a text file with a 20 letter name and see if it gets truncated).
There are benefits to upgrading, and different people will have different ideas about which ones are more important. DHCP, for example, is one I particularly like. |
| |
[ Log in to reply ] |
| |
|
Gonzalo Meza |
Message #102443, posted by winterhunter at 09:46, 25/5/2007, in reply to message #102440 |
Member
Posts: 105
|
I think that long filenames are OK. If not, I can format without any problems the second HD of the machine for data storage (no soft is installed there).
My question, however, still stands: are the benefits from upgrading (besides DHCP, which I don't use at all) really worth the 85 £ that the ROMS cost? |
| |
[ Log in to reply ] |
| |
|
fwibbler |
Message #102445, posted by fwibbler at 10:52, 25/5/2007, in reply to message #102443 |
Posts: 320
|
It's difficult to say that yes, there is this benefit and that benefit as they are mostly small benefits and don't sound like they are worth the money.
However, all together, most people find that once they have been using the latest OS for a while, they miss it terribly when they have to do without for some reason or other.
Also, since you have OS 4.02 ROMS, you could upgrade to OS 6.
ROL were selling that at a special price of £50 at a recent show.
I don't know if that offer still holds.
A phone call to RISC OS Ltd answer that one.
Don't bother to try and find information on their webshite though. Phone is best.
Cheers!
[Edited by fwibbler at 10:52, 25/5/2007]
[Edited by fwibbler at 10:53, 25/5/2007] |
| |
[ Log in to reply ] |
| |
|
hEgelia |
Message #102446, posted by illuminatius at 11:06, 25/5/2007, in reply to message #102443 |
Member
Posts: 44
|
My question, however, still stands: are the benefits from upgrading (besides DHCP, which I don't use at all) really worth the 85 £ that the ROMS cost? That depends on whether or not you actually value the features it offers over and beyond RO 4.02. As a RISC OS user, I must apologise for the riscos.com site; it's rather dated and information is carelessly scattered throughout the site. Some of it isn't really accurate anymore, but that's where we come in 
Personally, I think it's worth the money. It really adds quite a lot of new functionality. Some might say it's mostly cosmetic (round, coloured buttons, etc.), but they'd be telling you only the most obvious bit. Compared to RO 4.02, Adjust has seen a lot of under-the-hood type improvements, user interface improvements, etc.
For a short review of Adjust see - http://www.drobe.co.uk/features/artifact1077.html
However, for a fairly comprehensive review, including screenshots and detailed feature lists, check out this review of Select 3 (basically the same as Adjust) - http://www.drobe.co.uk/riscos/artifact671.html |
| |
[ Log in to reply ] |
| |
|
Gonzalo Meza |
Message #102494, posted by winterhunter at 10:12, 28/5/2007, in reply to message #102446 |
Member
Posts: 105
|
Thanks a lot for your answers!!!
After reading your replies and the information you gave me, I wrote an email to RiscOS to know how to order the set of ROMs. |
| |
[ Log in to reply ] |
| |
|
The Icon Bar: General: RiscOS 4.39 - To upgrade or not to upgrade? |
