After gaining a better understanding of the 3-button mouse works in RISC OS (Open) and contextual menus with the middle/scroll wheel button, I took a second look at it, and I'm really impressed. I've got a long way to go on the learning curve but I feel like I took an essential first step and now starting to get a sense of the breadth of applications available. Apparently it can write to FAT32 filesystems, though it's possible that was the RISC OS Direct branch and not the ROOL 5.30 branch (the forking of the project is a bit complicated and confusing). I'll have to explore that further, but it looks like there's potential for some file transfer to and from RISC OS (at least sneakernet)
But the most pleasing development to me is that I had this Pi 3B which was overwhelmed by the latest RPi OS Desktop (64 bit). I felt my choices were to just go with Lite (which would be too limiting for my use case), dedicate it to some specialized use (like Pi-Hole, etc) or just donate it. But RISC OS gives it a chance to provide a GUI desktop environment very suitable for learning computer skills (though some of the muscle memory it'll develop won't transfer to Linux or other OS; the ability to think critically and methodically, plus absorbing various computing concepts is worth the quirkiness of the system).
Before I knew it, 2 hrs had gone by and I was still just scratching the surface of what is on offer.
Now, I'm not planning to start doing my online banking with this machine anytime soon. But I feel like it's useful again and would feel good about passing it along to someone as a capable machine for exploration and creative use. It's more than a time capsule. I'm looking forward to how things progress with Risc OS Open, and learning more about how to use it effectively.
But the most pleasing development to me is that I had this Pi 3B which was overwhelmed by the latest RPi OS Desktop (64 bit). I felt my choices were to just go with Lite (which would be too limiting for my use case), dedicate it to some specialized use (like Pi-Hole, etc) or just donate it. But RISC OS gives it a chance to provide a GUI desktop environment very suitable for learning computer skills (though some of the muscle memory it'll develop won't transfer to Linux or other OS; the ability to think critically and methodically, plus absorbing various computing concepts is worth the quirkiness of the system).
Before I knew it, 2 hrs had gone by and I was still just scratching the surface of what is on offer.
Now, I'm not planning to start doing my online banking with this machine anytime soon. But I feel like it's useful again and would feel good about passing it along to someone as a capable machine for exploration and creative use. It's more than a time capsule. I'm looking forward to how things progress with Risc OS Open, and learning more about how to use it effectively.
Statistics: Posted by cspan — Fri Jun 13, 2025 7:46 pm — Replies 0 — Views 46