The first beta is out for Athena, which will be a customizable object-oriented interface that can sit on top of any operating system's kernel including Linux, Mac OS and Windows. The modular design enables developers to write one source code base that can be run on all three platforms without rewriting the code. Instead, it can be used with them, according to Paul Manias, the primary developer and founder of Rocklyte. For this reason I expect you'll see more of a synergy rather than direct competition. DML scripts are used to define and construct the interface of the operating system and can be integrated into applications.
Developers can completely restructure the look and feel of the OS for each application.
It is similar to the Themes motif on the Netscape 6 browser but now applied to the OS and applications. The interface is entirely customizable because everything in the OS interface is an object. Athena can be run on PCs as well as embedded devices such as Internet appliances and kiosks. Beta testers like the ability to customize Athena's interface. It was a lot lighter on resources than I thought it would be compared to some other window managers.