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NOTE some of this page will be things that some of the users of RISC OS outside of the USA may see differently. Like the lack of regulation in implementing extension modules (on the other side of the Atlantic creek it seems they believe in central authority model that used to be foreign to USA users).

Why RISC OS:

RISC OS has always been easier to use, and program for than other OS's. That is using the actual OS and its API/ABI. Even today I can not find any Linux, Win32, Win16, OS/2, BeOS/Haiku, MROS, Menuette OS, Macintosh System Software, Mac OS X, or Unix based systems. No other OS that quite lives up to RISC OS in ease of use and ease of writing applications for (though Amiga OS comes in a very close second place).

This is true to the point that every time I promise to attempt to use another OS (usually in response to hype about other systems being better, or other RISC OS users putting down RISC OS) I end up giving up on the other OS and sticking to RISC OS.

WIP : This document is a Work In Progress, and will go into details of the reasons I feel RISC OS is a better OS (including the fact that teaching those that have not used desktop computers before to use there first system is easiest accomplished with RISC OS).

There are others:

Do not get me wrong there are other OS's I use from time to time, and one that I use quite a bit. I would never say I do not like an Operating System unless I had given it a good chance.

Amiga OS is very much a decent OS that I do use, nearly as much as RISC OS.

Some good parts of RISC OS:

Fewer Lockups: Even though RISC OS is a cooperative multitasking OS with limited memory protection, it is much likely that a program running on RISC OS will lock up on you than it is on most other systems. This is likely largely do to the OS being cooperative multitasking, and thus giving programmers good incentive to do a good job at remaining responsive (and it is to do it correctly easy in RISC OS).

Think about how often you have a program lock up on your modern OS, regardless of what OS that may be. On some OS's this is truly terrible, as the program will lock up becoming a zombie, and depending on the nature of the task you may not be able to kill it.

On RISC OS it is extremely rare for an application to lock up. Applications that run in single tasking (thus stopping all others) are known to do so, so the user tends to know to quite other tasks, or expect them to freeze while single tasking though resume normal operation as soon as you return to the WIMP (single tasking applications are almost universally full screen). Multitasking applications just work, being extremely rare to see a lock up or application crash.

Fewer System Crashes: Again thanks to programmers taking the time to think, it is much more of a rare event for the OS to crash than it is on most other Operating Systems.

More Productive: For this part there is another that did a much better job at explaining this part than I can. Please see: Why I stay with RISC OS. By Paul Vigay

Easier to use: Many whom are familiar with other modern Operating Systems and Windowing Systems complain about it being difficult to learn RISC OS. This is only because they are familiar with other Desktop OS's and Windowing Environments that are nearly identical to each other (Macintosh System Software, Amiga OS, Win32, most Linux/Unix desktop environments, BeOS, etc are near identical in use) and not how easy RISC OS is. I can say this having taught people to use there first Desktop OS and Windowing Environment having to use a number of different options.

You take a group of young people that have never used a "Desktop" system and teach them to use there first Desktop System, if that system is RISC OS they quickly pick it up, in a way that allows for dynamic usage. If it is another System it is difficult to get them to pick it up in a dynamic usage way (this is regardless of the preference of the teacher, as it has been tested with teachers that are most accustom to Win32 as well). This is still an ongoing area, as many young people have only used touch interfaces like tablets and smart-phones. This goes to show what Desktop OS really is easy to use.