According to Andy Marks, RISCOSbits will be in ‘stealth’ mode at London 2026 – but that doesn’t mean they’re arriving in an F-117, because there isn’t enough space to land one. I’ll let Andy explain:
New hardware, faster storage, clever software and a few surprises are heading to the RISC OS London Show with RISCOSbits.
RISCOSbits will be back at the London Show this year, bringing a selection of new machines, some interesting software developments, special show offers and a few things that might make visitors look twice.
Despite the continuing increases in RAM and SSD prices, we’ve managed to keep our show prices competitive by rationalising existing stock. Quantities will be limited, though, so anyone hoping to take home a new machine would be well advised to visit us sooner rather than later!
In Stealth Mode!
Making its first public appearance will be the FAST Stealth, our latest addition to the FAST family and quite possibly one of the smallest fully featured SATA-based RISC OS computers around.
Housed in a rugged, compact aluminium enclosure, Stealth packs 4GB RAM, a 256GB SATA SSD, room for a second SSD, Gigabit Ethernet and our fast SATA Block Device drivers into a surprisingly small space.
But Stealth has another trick up its sleeve – a bright, front-mounted 320 × 240 colour LCD screen, capable of displaying RISC OS sprites and images. Future developments should allow it to display live system information, including processor activity, temperatures, storage usage and network status.
At £299, including a power supply, Stealth offers a great deal of computing power in a very small package. It might even give some NVMe systems a run for their money!
FAST Fire – Still Burning Bright
Not everyone wants the smallest possible computer. Some people want room for expansion, multiple drives and a machine they can easily adapt to their needs. That’s where FAST Fire comes in.
Our established Mini-ITX SATA system offers four SATA ports, allowing multiple SSDs to be fitted, along with our dedicated SATA Block Device drivers. Supplied with 2GB RAM, a 250GB SSD, Wi-Fi and a power supply, FAST Fire remains a capable, expandable RISC OS desktop.
At £329, it’s an attractive option for anyone who wants the flexibility of multiple drives without juggling USB storage devices.
FreeNVMe – Giving RISC OS a Boost
One of our most significant developments has been FreeNVMe, bringing native NVMe storage support to modern RISC OS computers.
NVMe offers impressive storage performance, with rapid application loading, file transfers and a generally more responsive desktop. FreeNVMe brings those benefits to an expanding range of RISCOSbits machines, from compact computers to full-sized desktop systems.
At the top of the range is FAST NVMe, our Mini-ITX desktop system with 4GB RAM and a 256GB NVMe SSD, offering plenty of performance and expansion potential for everyday RISC OS use.
For those wanting something smaller, eNVy.Me provides a compact aluminium-cased system with 128GB NVMe storage, while the tiny PiRO Qube manages to squeeze a complete NVMe-equipped RISC OS computer into an enclosure that takes up very little desk space indeed.
And for those who prefer to get their hands dirty, our DIY ONE, TWO and THREE kits provide three different routes to building your own NVMe-equipped RISC OS computer.
Starting at just £119, the kits offer a choice of memory, storage, USB connectivity and display options, with the top-end DIY THREE providing 4GB RAM, a 256GB NVMe SSD and dual HDMI outputs.
Each kit includes our distinctive layered oak case and everything needed to build a working computer. No soldering required – just a screwdriver, a little enthusiasm and perhaps a cup of tea.
With FreeNVMe now underpinning so much of our range, fast solid-state storage is no longer something reserved for the most expensive RISC OS systems.
Duplicity – one ‘thing’ to rule them all!
We’ve also been rather busy on the software front, with several projects now very nearly finished and sprinting towards release.
One of the most interesting is Duplicity, designed to make working with multiple RISC OS computers considerably easier.
Imagine two RISC OS machines, each with its own monitor, but only one keyboard and mouse. Simply move your mouse pointer off the edge of one screen and onto the other, and you’re controlling the second computer. Move it back, and you’re home again.
No swapping keyboards, no reaching for another mouse, and no complicated switching arrangements. Duplicity also provides clipboard sharing and file transfer between the two machines.
But that’s only the beginning.
Duplicity Pro takes the concept considerably further, extending keyboard and mouse sharing to computers running Windows and Linux.
Rather than treating these as entirely separate machines, Duplicity Pro aims to make them feel like natural extensions of your RISC OS desktop. Need to move a file from RISC OS to Windows? Duplicity Pro will provide file transfer between operating systems. Want to copy text from a Linux application and paste it into a RISC OS document? Clipboard sharing is part of the plan.
Printing is another area we’re tackling. Duplicity Pro will allow RISC OS-generated PDFs to be automatically passed to another operating system for printing, taking advantage of modern printer support without requiring equivalent drivers under RISC OS.
We’ve also developed audio sharing, allowing sound from Windows or Linux applications to be played through the RISC OS system.
Perhaps most usefully, Duplicity Pro will allow files and hyperlinks to be launched using applications on another operating system.
Double-click a document on RISC OS and have it opened in Microsoft Word on Windows, or launch a web link in a modern Linux browser.
There will be separate Windows and Linux versions of Duplicity Pro, both designed to bridge some of the gaps between RISC OS and the wider computing world.
For anyone using a dual-OS machine, or running several computers side by side, the possibilities are rather exciting. We’re looking forward to showing just how closely these different environments can work together.
RiscMail – Email Comes Home
Another project that’s very nearly ready is RiscMail, our native WIMP-based IMAP email client for RISC OS.
Supporting multiple IMAP accounts, including Gmail, RiscMail aims to provide a proper desktop email experience without relying on webmail or constantly switching between browser windows.
Features include full IMAP folder management, drag-and-drop message organisation, a themeable interface, and integrated address book, calendar and to-do facilities.
Originally developed using BBC BASIC and TWimp, RiscMail has been undergoing a substantial rewrite in C, with the aim of delivering a responsive, capable and properly RISC OS-style email application. It’s been quite a project, but we’re getting very close to having something ready for everyday use.
And There’s More… We’ll also have our RISC OS Remote and RISC OS Roam devices, RiscDOCK laptop solutions, customisable mechanical keyboards and a selection of other hardware and accessories.
On the software side, a number of other utilities will be on show, including DeskSnap, which brings Windows-style window snapping to RISC OS; HistCLI, which adds command history to the command line; ClipStore, a clipboard history manager; and SeamlessX, which allows individual Windows applications to appear directly in RISC OS desktop windows.
Much of this development has been accelerated through AI-assisted programming, combined with experienced human oversight, allowing us to tackle projects that might otherwise have remained on the wish list.
So, whether you’re after a new machine, curious about our software developments, or simply want to see what we’ve been tinkering with, come and find RISCOSbits at the London Show on Saturday 24th October.
We promise there’ll be plenty to see. Even if some of it is rather Stealthy!
