RISC OS Open
RISC OS Open Ltd. is a limited company engaged in computer software and IT consulting. It is managing the process of publishing the source code to RISC OS. Company founders include staff who formerly worked for Pace, the company which acquired RISC OS after Acorn's demise.
The source code publication was initially facilitated by a shared source initiative between ROOL and Castle Technology, prior to a switch to the more widely recognised Apache licence in October 2018.
ROOL hopes that by making the RISC OS source code available for free it will help stimulate development of both the RISC OS source code and the platform as a whole.
Operations
ROOL set initial goals to make the source code easily available, and also to establish a wiki, forum and bug tracker. These have been available since December 2006.Operations exist to facilitate tasks related to ROOL's goals. Additionally, staff undertake development work on the code themselves. Since early 2009, ownership, development and sales of the tools were transferred to RISC OS Open. As an extension to the initial goals, in 2011 ROOL introduced a bounty scheme to encourage further development.
Attendance at computer shows is often arranged, with other knowledgeable coders sometimes standing in when ROOL staff are unavailable. A Facebook page and Twitter feed was created in 2012 to communicate events via social media.