For those of us who like to use highly customizable free WordPress themes like Suffusion and Thematic, there is some good news today: Atahualpa 3.5.2 is available for download. Unfortunately (did you guess that was coming?), Atahualpa 3.5.2 has a serious bug that causes server CPU and memory usage to skyrocket.
I’ve tried Atahualpa 3.5.2 on multiple servers and in all cases the CPU usage spirals above 37% and the memory usage goes beyond 5%. Such a shame because its straight-edged look is a great alternative to Suffusion’s curvy look.
I advise anyone wishing to upgrade to Atahualpa 3.5.2 to wait for a bug fix to be released or risk being kicked off your server. Alright, the most that’ll usually happen is that your server account will be suspended until the theme is downgraded.
If you have already installed (or upgraded to) the new theme version and your web host has suspended your account without providing you access to your WordPress admin panel, just delete the Atahualpa 3.5.2 directory in /wp-content/themes/ to force WordPress to use its default theme (TwentyTen or Kubrik, in pre WP 3 versions).
I’ve left a comment on Atahualpa’s homepage to alert the developers to the bug.
IMPORTANT UPDATE
A bugfix version of Atahualpa has been released! Version 3.5.3 does not suffer the resource usage problems that plagued 3.5.2. Ladies and gentlemen, Atahualpa is again safe to use.
