# RISC OS: Two Decades of Open Source Evolution How a community transformed an operating system over 20 years. - **Source:** [Hacker News: Front Page](https://brifing.si/source/b07aa772-b1a0-4a76-aa18-719c6f9e2dde) - **Published:** 2026-08-02 - **Original article:** - **On Brifing:** https://brifing.si/s/0c609dba-8c8c-414b-a143-565b38eb471d ## A Bold Beginning In 2006, RISC OS Open Ltd was founded with the ambitious goal of converting a proprietary OS into an open platform. The first source codes were released to the public in 2007 through a partnership with Castle. Displayed at Wakefield Show, this marked the project's first tangible success. Community code contributions rapidly accelerated system development from the outset. ## Growth Through Community The 2008 achievement of running RISC OS 5 on IYONIX computers was the platform's first major milestone. By 2009, adaptation to BeagleBoard portable devices began the affordable hardware journey - Jeffrey Lee's port won an Icon Bar award. The 2010 Bounty Scheme allowed users to crowdfund most-wanted features, a system still active today. ## Raspberry Pi Revolution 2012's port to Raspberry Pi became the project's turning point. The credit-card sized computer offered one-key access to BBC BASIC. RISC OS Pi attracted a new generation of users and broke web traffic records. Version 5.20 in 2013 became the first stable ROM release in years. ## Open Source Leap 2014 brought Raspberry Pi 2 support. The 2016 Titanium board was specifically designed for RISC OS. Castle's 2018 acquisition transitioned the system to Apache 2.0 license - its first commercial availability. In 2019, the entire codebase (106,000+ commits) moved to GitLab, becoming openly accessible. ## Modernization Era 2020's version 5.28 offered official Raspberry Pi 4 support with 700+ improvements. The 2021 RISC OS Awards named it 'Best New Development'. 2022's Archimedes BASIC Compiler achieved 35x performance boost using hardware FPU. Even SpaceX's alleged Mars mission joke highlighted its recognition. ## New Technologies 2023 introduced native Git client, open-source SparkFS and NVMe storage support. Version 5.30 covered 7 hardware platforms. 2024 saw 1000+ accepted merge requests. The Moonshot initiative began preparing 64-bit Arm support for the post-32-bit era. ## 20th Year Milestones 2025 overcame 32-bit limitations on 8GB Pi devices. Long-lost backup tapes miraculously restored Fortran support. Community contributions elevated RISC OS far beyond its 2006 state. ROOL data shows flawless operation across 7 hardware platforms currently. ## Future Horizons RISC OS Open now focuses on 64-bit support and new hardware compatibility for the next 20 years. Community contributions continue growing exponentially. The project stands as a living testament to open-source success, boasting over 150,000 commits by 2026. ## Sources covering this story - https://www.riscosopen.org/news/articles/2026/06/20/twenty-years-of-risc-os-open — --- _Summary written by Brifing from the original reporting. Copyright in the original article belongs to its publisher; read the full piece at the link above._