PRESS RELEASE 16/02/05
RISCOS Ltd is excited to announce the immediate availability of the very first native DVD-ROM for the RISC OS platform:
Foundation RISC User DVD Edition
Launched to coincide with issue 16 of the regular CD edition of Foundation RISC User, the new DVD-ROM contains absolutely everything that Foundation RISC User has ever published, right back to issue 1: that's five full years' worth of magazines in total. What's more, all of this material is comprehensively combined and cross-referenced within a single attractive and very easy-to-use HTML-based 'Web site format' magazine. The combined edition is more than just sixteen separate magazines on one disc; it's a carefully integrated and indexed compilation of all the material in a single highly organised entity with multiple ways of accessing the articles. Of course, the DVD edition continues to support Foundation RISC User's unique and pioneering interactive presentation, in which a click on a special link within an article can cause software to launch from the disc (so that, for example, clicking on an illustration of a Draw file causes the original vector graphic to be loaded immediately by Draw).
What do you get?
The Foundation RISC User DVD is packaged very attractively in a black plastic DVD library case with a full-colour disc label and sleeve insert; its front cover features a collage of the cover artwork from the sixteen constituent issues, and it will grace any RISC OS user's software shelf! As for the magazine content, Foundation RISC User has a tradition of publishing particularly lengthy, detailed and authoritative articles of lasting interest and usefulness on a very wide range of topics. Subjects have included programming articles (for all levels of expertise), graphics tutorials, behind-the-scenes guides to RISC OS software and hardware, plus fascinating special features on unusual subjects, and the magazine has even published enhanced editions of entire books. All in all, there's a vast amount of material on the DVD: in storage terms, there's well over a Gigabyte of data (and all of the software is stored in compressed archives); in article terms, there are several hundred lengthy feature articles comprising well over a million words. Existing subscribers already know the value of the magazine, and can now get all of its previous content combined on one convenient disc with enhanced indexing; non-members can now find out what they've been missing, even if it means that they have several months of reading ahead of them! Aside from all the articles, the Foundation RISC User DVD also contains lots of other useful information, including a large archive of the best and most useful RISC OS free software, a database section with many details about user groups, developers and products, and a comprehensive news section that contains a very complete record of announcements, shows and user group events since the year 2000. The news section and other time-based aspects of the DVD go up to the end of the year 2004; as with all CD editions of the magazine, the date on the disc indicates the latest date of the material contained on it, which is why the disc is labelled "Christmas 2004" (rather than the launch date of February 2005). The FRU DVD is a five-year slice of history which runs up to the end of the year 2004; but, of course, the bulk of the material on the disc will be of interest and value for a very long time to come.
Who can buy it?
For the first time, as a special spin-off product from the regular magazine, the Foundation RISC User DVD is being made available to everyone, not just to members of the Foundation. However, to be as fair as possible and to reduce the price to Foundation members who have some or all of the material on the DVD already, a scale of charges is being implemented, so that the longer you have been a Foundation member, the more cheaply you can buy the DVD. No matter how much you have to pay for it, though, the DVD represents the equivalent of five years' worth of Foundation subscriptions, and is therefore tremendous value! The prices have been set as follows (including VAT and UK postage):
Prices to Foundation members
The price decreases depending on the length of your membership:
1 year: £36.25 *
2 years: £29.20 *
3 years: £22.15 *
4 years: £15.10
*
5 years: £8.05 *
Price to Select members
£25.00 *
Price to non-members of Foundation/Select
£43.30 *
Bundle options
Also available are several hardware and software bundles which include the Foundation RISC User DVD:
DVD + 1 year's new Foundation membership:
£70.50 * [save £12]
DVD + 1 year's new Select subscription: £175.00 * [save £25]
DVD + Adjust ROM set: £131.00 ** [save £27]
DVD + 16x DVD-ROM drive: £73.00 ***
DVD + 16x DVD-ROM drive + Adjust ROM set: £200.00 ****
Overseas postage
All of the above-quoted prices are fully inclusive of VAT and postage to addresses in the UK. However, if you live overseas, please add postage according to your location and the number of asterisks against the price of the product you wish to buy:
EU
* 50p
**
£5.00
*** £9.75
**** £10.50
Zone 1 (USA, Israel)
* £2.20
** £6.10
*** £14.75
**** £15.00
Zone 2 (Australia, New Zealand)
* £2.50
**
£6.10
*** £14.75
**** £15.75
Who can use it?
The Foundation RISC User DVD is a genuine milestone for the RISC OS platform, being the first native DVD-ROM. (The magazine's interactive features will only operate under RISC OS, though you can read the articles on any DVD-equipped PC or Mac.) An unfortunate side-effect of ploughing a new furrow such as this is that not all current hardware is capable of reading the DVD. In basic terms, you will need one of the following systems in order to make direct use of the Foundation RISC User DVD:
- A Risc PC with a DVD drive, running RISC OS Select
or Adjust;
- Virtual Risc PC running on a PC with a DVD drive, running RISC OS Select or Adjust.
Other RISC OS computers fitted with DVD drives (and running a
suitable version of RISC OS) may be able to use this DVD, but the above two
systems have been tested successfully by RISCOS Ltd.
At present, the elements
required to use a DVD-ROM disc under RISC OS are as follows:
1. A DVD drive to
physically read the disc;
2. A version of RISC OS capable of supporting DVD
drives.
At present this means either RISC OS Select or RISC OS
Adjust. RISC OS 4.0x and RISC OS 5.0x do not support DVDs. Some Risc PCs supplied by Castle Technology included DVD drives for use as CD drives;
if any such machine is upgraded with Select or Adjust, it should be able to use
this DVD. Any machine that already runs Select or Adjust, but has only a CD
drive, should be able to use this DVD if it is upgraded with a DVD drive. For
any users who wish to upgrade their computers with RISC OS Select or Adjust
and/or a DVD drive, RISCOS Ltd is offering various handy upgrade bundles; see
above. Ironically (given that the DVD was actually created on an Iyonix, and is
compatible with it in software terms), it is not currently possible to use this
DVD on an Iyonix PC because RISC OS 5 cannot read DVDs. In the future, however,
this is likely to change: once DVD-handling capabilities have been added (either
by a future RISC OS upgrade or via the forthcoming third-party Cino product),
the FRU DVD will work very nicely on the Iyonix. If you wish to use the
Foundation RISC User DVD but do not want to upgrade your computer, or you have
an Iyonix, there are still other alternatives: if your computer is on a network
with a PC or Mac, and you are prepared to devote 1GB of hard drive space to the
magazine, you can simply copy the entire contents of the DVD across your network
and then run it locally from your RISC OS computer. This will provide the most
efficient performance in any case. The magazine itself can also, of course, be
read on a Mac or PC; you will simply lose the ability to use the RISC OS-only
interactive features which involve launching software from the DVD.
Testimonials
(Concerning previous CD editions) "I'm extremely impressed with the Foundation disc. It looks good, reads well and is simple to navigate." - Richard Blythe "Congratulations both on the content and the way the [magazine] is implemented. Evidently a great deal of thought has been put into the structure, which I found exceptionally easy to use." - Brian Carroll "The FRU CD magazine is so well produced [...] Considering the amount of information that's on the CD, the cross-referenced indexes make it such a pleasure to use." - Gavin Crawford "The whole CD is a joy, and something our platform can be proud of." - Geoff Steeper "It's a really excellent job." - David Pilling
Issued by
Richard Hallas
Editor,
Foundation RISC User
RISCOS Ltd
For further details contact:
Paul Middleton
Managing Director
RISCOS Ltd