LWN: Comments on "The Athene Operating System"

Do we really want to repeat UNIX history THIS MUCH ?

alan — Thu, 16 Sep 2004 18:35:47 +0000

Thanks, but you're forgetting about another kind of freedom. That is my freedom not to be stuck with X11 if I don't want it. This is just a graphical environment that can really be put on any linux distribution you so choose. Or if you don't have a distribution of choice yet (i.e. new users) they have their packaged distribution using their graphical environment as well. If they didn't have a distribution of their own, they'd have to concentrate on being compatible with all the major ones.

SunOS, AIX, IRIX, those were entirely different operating systems. Athene _is_ linux, only the graphical environment varies. I should think you would be comparing their environment to KDE or GNOME on X11. As for being targeted at more technical users,.. most novices probably are content with X11 and aren't usually looking to change. I'm guessing that this is for those whose needs are not adequately met by traditional X11 environments.

Personally I'm just ticked that the mobile radeon chip in my laptop doesnt dualhead well with a second monitor under X11. I'm using the MergeFB mode in the cvs Xfree radeon driver currently and it kinda blows. It creates a virtual frame on my smaller laptop panel to match the resolution on my larger external flat panel. I want native resolutions on both, hopefully SciTech graphics can handle this.

Real transparencies would be nice too, its about time.

Old Screen Shots?

tjc — Thu, 16 Sep 2004 16:41:57 +0000

I saw these screenshots (or ones very much like them) 2 or 3 years ago. Apparently they have been working on this for some time, or perhaps they merged with another project?

The Athene Operating System

jmalcolm — Thu, 16 Sep 2004 15:15:15 +0000

I agree, this was a litte confusing. The Athene Desktop is available as a download for both Linux and Windows. Athene is X compatible on Linux. Does the Athene Desktop provide X compatibility on Windows?

Boot&Login

eru — Thu, 16 Sep 2004 13:49:20 +0000

I don't appreciate doing things in entirely different way compared to the rest of the (Linux) world, but that fast boot and login time is tempting.

Mainstream distros and desktop environments could use some redesign here. For various reasons having a machine always on (and the user always logged in) is often not an option or desirable in home use.

The Athene Operating System

evgeny — Thu, 16 Sep 2004 11:54:23 +0000

> integration of the SNAP Graphics technology (in place of XFree86 or X.org)

and

> advantages of SNAP over XFree86 or X.org

are really confusing, IMHO. From these passages one may conclude (I did at first) they're not using X at all, which is wrong - provided mentions of multiple KDE/Gnome/etc apps. XFree86 (or X.org, I don't know) is certainly there, _including_ the X server. It's only the drivers that are theirs, so from the point of view of an end-user, this distribution is in no way different than any other (necessarily commercial) distro shipped with e.g. NVidia drivers included. Technically speaking, the difference is a bit larger, since the SNAP system is not just a collection of alternative drivers, but (from what I can infer from their white paper) a kind of DRI implemented entirely in the user space.

Do we really want to repeat UNIX history THIS MUCH ?

khim — Thu, 16 Sep 2004 11:39:29 +0000

This is very serious trend lately: a lot of distributions with bunch of proprietary stuff at core. First Xandros, now Athene and so on. This is first stap on "UNIX way". Rememeber ? Only SunOS can... AIX is the only... IRIX is the one... Remember what the end result was ? Comfused customers stuck with Windows...

Do we really need to repeat this ?

P.S. Now you can understood why I really hope they will not succeed. SuSE (now - after YaST is GPLed) if barely on the side of good... But this... Plain and simple: Athene, Xandros and so success is bad for free software.

The Athene Operating System

gte223j — Thu, 16 Sep 2004 04:54:36 +0000

This was a joy to read. Thank you ladislav.