Twenty Years of RISC OS Open
RISC OS Open Ltd celebrates its 20th anniversary of transitioning a proprietary operating system into an open-source project. The article highlights key milestones, including community contributions and the porting of the OS to hardware like the Raspberry Pi.
Why it matters
The longevity of this project demonstrates the viability of community-driven open-source maintenance for legacy software platforms.
On 20 June 2006 we incorporated RISC OS Open Ltd with one slightly mad ambition: to take a proprietary operating system and open it up to anyone who fancied helping. Twenty years on, that has largely happened, and the RISC OS of today is in far better health than the one we inherited.
To mark the occasion, here is the story so far, with one highlight for each of our first twenty years. Our thanks go to everyone who has written code, filed a bug, funded a bounty, contributed in our forums and wiki, tested a nightly build, or simply cheered from the sidelines. None of it would exist without you.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in