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The Athene Operating System

With so many new Linux distributions being launched every month, you will be forgiven to give most of them nothing but a passing glance. Usually based on Debian GNU/Linux or Fedora Core, they often provide little new besides a different application set and a pretty wallpaper on the otherwise standard KDE or GNOME, or less commonly, XFce or Fluxbox desktops. That said, every once in a while there is a new distribution that makes an honest effort to depart from the standard fare. One of them is Rocklyte Systems' Athene, a new commercial Linux distribution from New Zealand.

Three notable characteristics differentiate Athene from other Linux distributions: fast boot times, integration of the SNAP Graphics technology (in place of XFree86 or X.org), and the desktop look and feel. The boot times are impressive - on this author's 1.6 GHz Pentium 4 machine it took 32 seconds to get from GRUB to Athene's graphical login prompt and another 1 - 2 seconds to get to the full graphical desktop, ready for user input. Shutdown times were equally striking, with about 11 seconds needed to halt the system.

SciTech SNAP Graphics is a commercial cross-platform driver architecture, originally developed for OS/2 and DOS, but now also supporting Windows and Linux. The major advantages of SNAP over XFree86 or X.org are ease of installation and auto-configuration of most graphics cards, including many of the latest NVIDIA and ATI cards. The company's web site also claims substantial speed achievements and provides benchmarks to prove them. However, a noteworthy disadvantage of SNAP is its lack of support for the XVideo extension and GL direct rendering, which makes it less acceptable on the home desktop market where video playback and gaming represent a fairly common PC usage. But the low cost of support and maintenance might make the $20 SNAP (trial editions are available for download) an adequate solution for many businesses.

Athene's desktop environment is unlike anything else on the market. It comes in three themes: Wintel, Indigo and Omega Workbench, each of which has been developed by Rocklyte Systems. They contribute towards that pleasant feeling of novelty and excitement that normally accompanies any new purchase. The desktop is complemented by a central configuration utility designed to perform basic tasks, such as desktop and system configuration, as well as installation and removal of applications from the system. Then there is a custom file manager, a custom media player, a custom text editor, a custom picture viewer, etc., but otherwise the available applications set is very limited - perhaps on par with MS Windows, but certainly a lot scantier than what one finds on a 4-CD Fedora Core set.

The good news is that the installation CD contains additional applications in binary format to complement the Athene OS. Both Qt and GTK+ libraries are available, together with many of the best open source applications that make use of these libraries. Almost all of KDE, including KOffice, are on the CD, as well as the GIMP, OpenOffice.org, Firefox, and MPlayer - just to name a few of the more interesting software packages. Development tools are available too and menu entries are automatically populated with icons upon installation. Because of these extra packages, Athene can be easily turned into a full-featured desktop, ready for every-day use.

Unfortunately, the Athene OS is still in its infancy and as such, it has unrefined edges, especially considering that the product seems to be designed for non-technical persons. As an example, networking is not configured during the initial installation. A quick trip to Athene's forums revealed that the correct way to set up networking was to install DHCP (available on the CD, but not installed by default), then read the DHCP documentation to learn how to configure /etc/dhcpd.conf and what to add to /etc/boot to bring networking up at boot. Hardly something that your average aunt Tilly would be thrilled doing! Furthermore, creation of user accounts is not enforced during or after installation as Athene seems content to provide just one root account for all.

There are usability issues that take the pleasure out of using some of Athene's otherwise pretty-looking utilities. Take the application installer, called QikInstall; it not only fails to auto-resolve dependencies of installed applications (nowadays the only major distribution that doesn't do this is Slackware), it merely displays the name of the first immediate dependency. The user is then left to navigate the application directories on the installation CD to find it! Another problem is inconsistent interaction with icons throughout the system - while the desktop icons require a single click to activate, those in the file manager and QikInstall need a double click. Since accidental double clicks are not detected, it is easy to end up with a very messy desktop!

Overall though, Athene is an innovative and fun distribution, with speed and stability as its most noticeable features. It is not difficult to see how it could become a standard OS in some small company where most work is accomplished in an office suite. Whereas users of RPM- or DEB-based distributions could be tempted to install additional applications and introduce potential instability into the system, Athene's non-standard packaging and a limited set of applications ensure that the operating system remains in its pristine and stable state, thus reducing administration costs. If Rocklyte can fix a few annoyances in Athene and design an effective marketing strategy, the obvious talent of Athene's developers could be transformed into a financial success for the entire company.

The Athene OS is available from Rocklyte Systems' online store, starting at $47.95, while Athene's desktop component (to be installed on top of an existing Windows or Linux installation) is available as a free download from the distribution's download page.

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