Arthur is an early GUIoperating System (OS) that was used on AcornARM-cpu-based computers from about 1987 until the much-superior RISC OS 2 was completed and made available in April 1989. It was the operating system of the earliest Archimedes ARM machines.
A screenshot of Arthur's gui desktop and its bundled accessory applications
The desktop is very primitive. It features a colour-scheme typically described as "technicolour". Its earlier revisions were very buggy, and was only really meant to be a placeholder until RISC OS 2 (a name chosen instead of Arthur 2) was completed. The "Arthur" name was supposedly dropped from version 2 because of the release at the time of a movie called Arthur 2: On the Rocks. Arthur is said to actually stand for "A Risc-based operating system by THURsday". Supposedly Arthur was put together in break-neck speed because a revolutionary operating system they had under development ("ARX") wasn't going to be ready in time.
Most software made for Arthur can be run under RISC OS. A few titles will not work, however.
