The 2015 Awards Poll
This was the third annual awards poll run by RISCOSitory, along with a survey, on the RISC OS Awards website.
Continuing the policy started last year, while the poll was nominally for 2015, the period covered was from November 2013 until December 2014, providing a two month overlap.
The poll was opened for votes on 9th December, 2015, and was closed on 12th February, 2016, giving people just over two months to make their choices. And in that period, there were 161 valid entries - an increase in the number for both previous polls, with the increase on last year being particularly notable.
It seems likely that this was a result of the method used: Whereas last year, voting was via a free-form text field, this year that was combined with a number of nominations, allowing those voting to select one.
As before, the whole process has run smoothly. The votes were initially received on a Windows computer, but then transferred to a RISC OS system, on which all of the processing and counting was carried out, using a combination of a small program written in BBC BASIC and Colton Software's Fireworkz.
And the results of that processing can be found below - congratulations to all the winners!
The 2015 RISC OS Awards Results
Best commercial software
The nominations in this category were:
- Impression-X (no website) - Computer Concepts' DTP software, now being 32-bitted by Richard Keefe,
- Ovation Pro - the DTP package from David Pilling,
- ArtWorks 2 - the vector graphics package originally from Computer Concepts, now from MW Software.
- SystemDisc - a tool from Piccolo Systems for creating/managing bootable disc images,
- RiscOSM - the OpenStreetMap-based mapping software from Sine Nomine,
- Organizer - the personal information manager from North One.
And the winner, with 32% of the vote, is:
RiscOSM, from Sine Nomine.
Best non-commercial software
The nominations in this category were:
- NetSurf - the cross-platform web browser from the NetSurf developers.
- GCC - a C/C++ compiler from the GCC team.
- Otter Browser - Chris Gransden's port of an alternative web browser.
- RiscLua - the RISC OS version of programming language Lua, from Gavin Wraith.
- Fireworkz 2 - an integrated word processor and spreadsheet from Stuart Swales/Colton Software.
- An updated version of Ovation - Beebug's DTP package, thanks to Rick Murray.
And the winner, with 49% of the vote, is:
NetSurf, from the NetSurf Developers.
Best game or diversion
The nominations in this category were:
- Star Fighter 3000, originally from FedNet, now free from Christopher Bazley.
- Overlord from AmCoG games.
- Legends of Magic from AmCoG Games.
- QuizMaster from Archisoft.
And the winner, with 58% of the vote, is:
Star Fighter 3000, originally from FedNet and now free from Christopher Bazley.
Best hardware
The nominations in this category were:
- A 105 key mechanical keyboard with red function keys and a cog logo from Elesar Ltd.
- ARMX6 - the i.MX6-based computer from R-Comp.
- RapidO Ig - the IGEPv5-based computer from CJE Micro's.
- The Titanium motherboard from Elesar Ltd.
- The Raspberry Pi 2 from the Raspberry Pi Foundation.
And the winner, with 33% of the vote, is:
The Raspberry Pi 2 from the Raspberry Pi Foundation .
Best solution for backwards compatibility
The nominations in this category were:
- RPCEmu from Matthew and Peter Howkins.
- VirtualRiscPC from 3QD.
- ArchiEmu from Jan de Boer.
- Aemulor from Adrian Lees/Spellings.net.
- ADFFS by Jon Abbott.
And the winner, with 34% of the vote, is:
Aemulor from Adrian Lees/Spellings.net.
Best new development
The nominations in this category were:
- Development of the Titanium motherboard by Elesar Ltd.
- The news that Pi-Top will be available with RISC OS from CJE Micro's.
- UltraHD support coming to R-Comp's ARMX6 computer.
- Otter Browser being ported to RISC OS by Chris Gransden.
- The Raspberry Pi Zero from the Raspberry Pi Foundation.
And the winner, with 41% of the vote, is:
The development of Titanium by Elesar Ltd.
Best show of initiative
The nominations in this category were:
- RISC OS Open for bounty matching in January 2015.
- Elesar Ltd for developing the Titanium motherboard.
- R-Comp for developing PiFi, a WiFi solution for RISC OS.
- The Archimedes Software Preservation Project by Jon Abbott.
And the winner, with 38% of the vote, is:
Elesar Ltd for developing the Titanium motherboard.
Best website or online resource
The nominations in this category were:
- The Archive-online mailing list.
- The Acorn News Service mailing list.
- The APDL tribute website.
- The Archimedes Software Preservation Project forum.
- The RISC OS Open forum and source code repository.
- The Stardot/Stairway to Hell forums.
And the winner, with 69% of the vote, is:
The RISC OS Open forum and source code repository.
Best publication or offline resource
The nominations in this category were:
- Drag 'n Drop magazine from Christopher Dewhurst.
- Archive magazine from Abbey Press Glastonbury.
- GAG-News, the magazine of the German Archimedes Group.
- The updated Style Guide from RISC OS Open Ltd.
- Raspberry Pi RISC OS System Programming by Bruce Smith.
And the winner, with 34% of the vote, is:
Archive Magazine, from Abbey Press.
Best foreign language resource
The nominations in this category were:
- The RISCOS.fr website.
- Steffen Huber's RISC OS blog.
- The Big Ben Club website.
- German news website ArcSite.
And the winner, with 46% of the vote, is:
RISCOS.fr, from David Feugey.
Best show or event
The nominations in this category were:
- The Southwest Show 2015.
- The Wakefield Show 2015.
- The RISC OS Experience 2015.
- Recursion 2015 incorporating the MUG Show.
- The London Show 2015.
And the winner, with 45% of the vote, is:
London 2015, organised by ROUGOL.
Most innovative or interesting project
The nominations in this category were:
- Martin Hansen's nautical GPS system, demonstrated at RISC OS Southwest 2015.
- Rasterman from Steve Harrison, offering increased colours on older hardware, demonstrated at Wakefield 2015.
- Steve Drain's 'tablet' form factor Raspberry Pi, demonstrated at London 2015.
- The Advanced Music Construction System from 3rd Event Technologies.
- The Archimedes core for the MiST FPGA board by Stephen Leary.
- ADFFS by Jon Abbott.
And the winner, with 51% of the vote, is:
ADFFS from Jon Abbott.
Best overall contributor
This was the one category that didn't have any nominations, and instead relied on those people voting to suggest which individual, team or company they feel deserves recognition as having made a worthy contribution to RISC OS.
Of the 161 valid voting forms received, only 64 voters entered something for this field, and of those 64, one individual was named in almost a third of the entries, with two companies coming second and third with a fifth, and almost a sixth respectively.
The top three, therefore, are:
- In third place, with 16% of the vote: RISC OS Open Ltd.
- In second place, with 20% of the vote: R-Comp.
- In first place, with 31% of the vote: Jeffrey Lee.
Broken cog of the year
The nominations in this category were:
- David Bradforth for not finishing and publishing his 'A Potted History of Acorn Computers' book, after taking £915 from RISC OS users via an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign.
- All the RISC OS users who didn't bother voting in last year's poll!
- Chris Evans of CJE Micro's, for not making use of the equipment available to him during his show presentations - such as the projector!
- RISCOSitory for a multitude of reasons - such as not announcing last year's poll on the site when it went live, as well as not being prepared and having to make it an open vote. Also for rushing some posts to the site and mangling the English language in the process - and even failing to put a title on one item!
- 3QD/VirtualAcorn for being particularly unhelpful towards a customer in need of help.
And the winner, with 43% of the vote, is:
3QD/VirtualAcorn for being particularly unhelpful towards a customer in need of help.