Athena 9.4 Release Notes
In late August 2005, Information Systems will release the latest version of the Athena system (Release 9.4) on Sun and Linux workstations. These changes are summarized in this document.
Summary of Changes
Some of the most visible changes effective with this release are the following:
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 upgraded to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4
- Solaris 9 updated to Solaris 10 release
- Default windowmanager changed from Sawfish to Metacity
- Firefox replaces Mozilla as default web browser
- Evolution has been upgraded to 2.0.4
- Gnome desktop components upgraded to 2.8.3
- Root logins disallowed on Cluster and Quickstation Workstations; use su instead.
- The Solaris 10 native GCC included in release
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux kernel upgrade from 2.4.x to 2.6.x
- lilo systems migrated to grub
- Sysinfo removed from release
Operating System Upgrades:
Basic Application Software:
For Developers:
For Private Workstation Owners:
Details about these user-visible changes are listed below. For the complete list of changes in the release (not only user-visible changes), see the System Release Notes.
Operating System Updates
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 upgraded to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4. All Linux Athena workstations set to autoupdate will be upgraded from RHEL3 to RHEL4 when they take the new release. Visit Red Hat's Features and Benefits page or Release Notes for detailed information about Red Hat Enterprise.
Solaris 9 has been upgraded to Solaris 10. Solaris 10 is a major OS upgrade that contains many new features. See Sun's Feature Overview or Release Notes for details.
Basic Application Software
The default windowmanager has been changed from Sawfish to Metacity.. Metacity is a simple windowmanager that offers improved speed and reliability over Sawfish. It integrates well with GNOME2. See the GNOME 2.2 release notes section on Metacity for more details.
The Sawfish windowmanager is still offered for users who prefer it. For details on using a windowmanager other than the default by setting the WINDOW_MANAGER environment variable, see Dotfiles on Athena
Firefox replaces Mozilla as the default web browser. Firefox is the next generation browser from Mozilla.org. The first time you use Firefox it will give you the option of converting your old Mozilla preferences and bookmarks to Firefox. Doing this will not remove your ability to go back to Mozilla later. For more information about the features and benefits of Firefox, see Mozilla.org's Firefox site. Mozilla is still provided for users who prefer it.
Evolution has been upgraded to version 2.0.4. Evolution 2.0.4 has improved stability and many added features. However, note that RSS reader functionality is no longer present in this version of Evolution.
The first time you use Evolution 2.0.4, you will be prompted to convert your old Evolution preferences and files to the new format and location for version 2.0.x. Doing this allows Evolution to use your preferences and saved information in the new version. Evolution may also offer you the option of deleting your old Evolution preferences and files. Only do this is you are sure you will not be using older versions of Evolution again. Many private workstations are not always upgraded to the newest Athena release immediately and may only offer older versions of Evolution.
See the Evolution 2.0 Feature Highlights or the User Guide for more details.
GNOME desktop components upgraded to 2.8.3. This upgrade improves stability and provides many bug fixes. For more details, see the GNOME 2.8 Release Notes.
Root logins disallowed on cluster and quickstation workstations.For security reasons, logging in as root is no longer allowed on public cluster and quickstation workstations. Users can still obtain root access by using the su command after logging in under their own account.
For Developers
The Solaris 10 native GCC included in release. Instead of packaging and providing a local version of GCC for Solaris, the native OS version is now included in the release.
For Private Workstation Owners
Red Hat Enterprise Linux kernel upgrade from 2.4.x to 2.6.x. This is a major kernel upgrade that may cause upgrade problems for some hardware configurations.
lilo systems migrated to grub. As there are known reliability issues with lilo under RHEL4, existing lilo systems are migrated to grub as part of the Athena 9.4 update.
Sysinfo removed from the release. Due to licensing and technical changes, sysinfo is no longer available in the release.
