RISC OS Cloverleaf - thoughts on the funding campaign

Regular readers (including you, Eddie), may recall this post from the beginning of October about the Cloverleaf Project. This began its Kickstarter funding campaign last Tuesday and as of the time of posting, had reached 24% of its funding goal. I was going to revisit the three questions I posed at the end of that post concerning the project but as I read through the Kickstarter campaign blurb, I realised that I had this all wrong. 

The desktop range... (screenshot from Kickstarter)

... alongside the laptop and all-in-one design (screenshot from Kickstarter).

What we have is a drive to get people who don't use RISC OS into the market. The t-shirt is a marketing touch but really, the included copy of Archive magazine (latest issue reviewed here), the RISC OS Introduction book and the included software are all there to support the new user. In many ways, this mirrors the packages created for the Amiga back in the day, taking the manufacturers' bundle and adding extras. The ones I most remember are Silica Systems (pictured below) but their were many more retailers that did the same thing, such as Hobbyte, Gordon Harwood and Diamond.

I miss 90's magazine adverts.

I don't think this is a bad idea at all, to be honest and I applaud the attempt to bring RISC OS to a wider audience. I would like to see the project succeed as any new software development fed back into the core OS can only be a good thing, as is the aim to get the OS running on a different ARM chipset. However, I have some niggles about Cloverleaf that I wish to note...

Their timeline for one.

This is... aspirational? (screenshot from Kickstarter)

As you can see, there is a very small window from the end of funding to getting hardware into the hands of supporters. The Kitten is now a Raspberry Pi 4-based system and the 11-inch laptop is no longer an option (even though it's still on the timeline...). I can understand the former, as it means they can easily get some hardware out to specific backers, but the latter? Unless they can't source them anymore? As for the other systems, RISC OS does not support the RK3399 processor but they hope to have deliverable systems within three months of funding. They do state that hardware may ship without some functionality (it would have to considering their deadline for NVMe support, but actual OS support???). The thought of pledging for the top end Puma desktop and not having access to a key feature for two months sits poorly with me. Also remember, that's development and testing time - as a software QA tester by trade, I think Cloverleaf aren't leaving enough time to get their offerings to a user ready state. Unless they want to use the backers as testers which is not a good idea at all, especially if said users are new to the OS anyway. 

I know, Kickstarter is not a shop. It's a backer funded system that should, hopefully, deliver on the campaign promises. However, the Puma desktop/laptop/all-in-one pledges are not small amounts of money and I question the belief that they should ship hardware that isn't fully operational. Will new users stick with the OS if bits don't work out of the box and the introductory guide is months away? I wonder...

This campaign has been likened to that of the Spectrum Next which successfully reached it's second campaign total and then some. Cloverleaf is not at all similar to that machine. Whereas the Next is a bespoke machine that is trying to do something different, other than emulation of a retro system, Cloverleaf is, in a way, duplicating a lot of what is already out there. The last six Kickstarters I have pledged to have been for projects that have been extremely specific and unique. From histories of the PS Vita, Dreamcast and Amiga, a definitive guide to Sierra On-Line games and a history of British Bullpup Firearms, all have filled a niche where previously nothing existed. Cloverleaf doesn't, and this brings me to the hardware.

I can already buy ready made kit from a number of suppliers, ready to go out of the box and with documentation to help me along. The 4te is £250, RISCOSbits can get you a working machine from £59 and even the higher end systems don't break the £300 barrier unless you buy add-ons or go portable. These prices make Cloverleaf look expensive. Take a RISCOSbits Delta Pi Lite 256 with 4GB of  RAM: £189. Buy an Archive magazine subscription (£40) and the RISC OS 5 user guide (£20.00). Add delivery for seasoning and you get a RISC OS desktop by the end of the month with easy access to the PlingStore and PackMan to add any software you need, and plenty to read, for £249.00 plus postage - cheaper than the Kitten desktop that you might, if everything goes to plan, receive three months from now with the beginners guide three months further out. And if you want a t-shirt, RISC OS Open do them for £12.50.

You could counter that the Cloverleaf pledge also supports software development for the OS and that's what is advertised, though how much of that will benefit the RISC OS universe is open to question. If you wanted to, you can directly support the development of the OS by pledging toward the bounty schemes here so there are other ways of supporting development other than via Cloverleaf. 

I will point out here that there has been a lively thread in the RISC OS Open: Forum about the project and if you have a look through it, you'll see a good amount of dialogue from project lead, Stefan, including a bit of an explanation as to dev resources posted on the 22nd November. This is handy to know and perhaps should have been included somewhere in the Kickstarter. They want you to hand over money, so the more detail about what the project will do (not just aspire to) is a good thing.

A list of included software with Cloverleaf (screenshot from Kickstarter)

This piece is not intended as a hit job, it's really not. As I have stated above, I like the idea of the Kickstarter campaign. I hope it raises the profile of RISC OS and maybe drums up some more support. However, as an existing user, this drive is not aimed at me and, as I have demonstrated above, if you know the market, you can get alternatives to Cloverleaf products more quickly and for less money.

I admit, I was carried away by my earlier enthusiasm for Cloverleaf. Looking at it in the hard light of day from my perspective, it's not something I think will I support but then again, I am torn on the issue. I don't need another desktop system and though I do want a RISC OS laptop, I think north of £500 for something I won't get for at least another seven months is an ask too far. Truth be told, I am also holding out for the article in the next issue of Archive magazine about portable RISC OS computers, as I have yet to see a proper review of the options available and I do like to do some research before handing over a few hundred pounds on anything. 

At the end of the day, it's a personal choice and I doubt my wittering will have much sway on your decision. This a new way of trying to grow the user base and awareness which, although it has its pitfalls, I hope it manages to succeed where it can. If more information comes out via the Kickstarter page or the forums, I may change my mind, but at present, it's not for me.