Athene is a desktop system for Linux that uses its own graphics drivers for high speed access to your graphics card. On version 4.1, resolution and display management functionality were improved. File and folder security information were added to the file manager. New hot-keys such as alt-tab window focusing were added. Dead-key support for international keyboards was added. Some bugs have also been fixed.
Athene 4.1 Released
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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I think these comments are a bit off topic. In order to bring them back to Athene, I would like to say that I tried it a few times and it never made any sense. They say it is an operating system but really it is more like a desktop enviornment that just sits on top of whatever OS and has little to no integration. I have never been too critical of things like this but everything I have seen about Athene just plain sucked.
Just downloaded and installed Athene 4.1 Desktop Edition within Windows 98SE. Everything works as it should. I appreciate the opportunity to use your software free of charge, and thanks to OSNews for keeping up with so many different projects.
Some questions though:
From the Athene-Windows ReadMe file: “We recommend
following up your install with a visit to rocklytefiles.com to start obtaining some extra programs for your system.”
Can’t seem to find anything to download, other than a 2D Pac-Man clone game that’s been available for years and some game vintage computer emulators that I already use under Windows…
If one of the main advantages of running AtheneDE is access to multi-platform software, then why are most of the downloads for AtheneX only? If it’s cross-platform, shouldn’t the applications run in either version?
Maybe it’s more of a future goal than a current advantage? Or is there something I just don’t ‘get’?
Best Wishes,
Bob
Eric: Athene has been available as a full OS install on CDROM for over a year now. If you’ve tried the Athene DE you should be aware of this, there was also a review of the OS just two days ago.
Bob: Working across multiple platforms requires programs to be developed natively. The short term answer to this is to port more programs, that’s something we might do more often in future as time permits. Our main focus is on areas outside of Windows though, this is why there are so many non-Windows packages.
Well I hope you guys took the last review here on board is all I can say. Everything recounted there has also been my own impression of this ‘OS’ somewhat pretty, reasonably fast, but not vastly functional.
There isn’t much else to be said for it at this time I think.
Put back at least a decent proportion of a lot of the functionality avaiable on many Linux based distros, provide a viable update and dependancy resolving mechanisim and supply easy access to reliable and fast 3D graphics drivers for a variety of popular branded graphics cards – and you may well just have something worthwile on your hands.
I wish you success in any case.
GJ
Paul Manias,
Thanks for the reply. This sentence was really what I was trying to get at, but unable in my late-night sleep-deprived state: “Working across multiple platforms requires programs to be developed natively.” So there aren’t many native Athene applications yet? Are there any third-party download websites?
If not, then I agree that porting common Linux programs is probably the most logical short-term solution. When does Rocklyte anticipate a focus shift towards native software? I mean, it seems Athene has been around a long time.
Best Luck,
Bob
I just tried out the windows version of Athene desktop. I expected something based on DML to be slow, but this was lightning fast. It started up quickly, almost instantly booted up the desktop I chose, and everything inside it was very speedy.
The lack of applications limited my testing, and the fact that this was not the “OS” itself meant I couldn’t try the special drivers combined with normal X applications, but I am still very impressed.
Hi Bob, we’re already in the process of porting some more games across (Doom ported last month) and some apps like MPlayer and Firefox have been earmarked too.
The #1 priority is Athene itself, but gradually more time is becoming available to work on these external projects.
if Mplayer does not work at the moment
does athene have a multi codec media player
The X11 version of MPlayer works fine, but a native version would work much faster than the X version and have better integration with Athene. This makes it a good candidate for a port.
Ran like a dog on my machine.
I have a 1G Celeron with a less than very average graphics card on it here at work, and found it didn’t work very well at all, very very slow on top of XP.
Not a complaint, just letting anyone else out there who wants to install a fast DE on a crap machine to maybe think twice, esp. if you have limited bandwidth for downloading, don’t waste it on this…
On a positive side, does look really nice, interested in watching this project grow…
thavith: seems like 1Ghz celeron (actually full PIII’s for those higher end ones) should be more than enough — are you running in vesa mode?
if i recall, rocklyte themselves use a 400mhz machine for worst case testing.
thavith,
Don’t know what your particular problem is, but Athene runs very fast on my 800mhz PIII with 384MB RAM.
I wonder if the problem isn’t something with XP, since I still use 98SE. I’ll try Athene on an XP laptop I have laying around and see what happens.
-Bob
Just installed Athene 4.1 on a laptop running XP. Everything ran just fine. It is a faster processor, at 2.2 ghz, than the machine you tested with.
Best Wishes,
Bob