Q: Why does Debathena seem slower than Athena 9?

Answer

The version of Debathena deployed in the public clusters creates a "sandbox" environment, in which users can install any pieces of software they need for the duration of their login session. At the end of their session, the software is automatically removed. There is some overhead involved in creating this "sandbox" which can slow down the login process slightly. The actual performance of applications (e.g. MATLAB, OpenOffice, Firefox) should be comparable to or exceed performance under Athena 9.

Additionally, the HP Compaq workstations are slated for replacement in Summer 2009, and their replacements should provided increased speed and processing power.