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Sugar (GUI)
Encyclopedia
Sugar is an open source
desktop environment
designed with the goal of being used by children for learning
.
Developed as part of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project, it is the default interface on OLPC XO-1
family of laptop computers.
Unlike most other desktop environment
s, Sugar does not use the "desktop
", "folder" and "window
" metaphors. Instead, Sugar's default full-screen activities require users to focus on only one program at a time. Sugar implements a novel file-handling metaphor (the journal), which automatically saves the user's running program session and allows them to later use an interface to pull up their past works by date, activity used or file type.
Sugar is now developed under the umbrella of Sugar Labs
, a nonprofit spin-off of OLPC which began operating in May 2008.
It is available as a LiveCD, as LiveUSB, or as a package installable through several GNU
/Linux
distributions.
Sugar is free software
released under the GNU GPL. As such, its development is done by a variety of contributors, including many who are not employed by Sugar Labs, One Laptop per Child, or any other related organization. The most active contributors to the core Sugar platform include Marco Pesenti Gritti, Walter Bender
, Christopher Blizzard
, Eben Eliason, Simon Schampijer, Christian Schmidt, Lisa Strausfeld
, Takaaki Okada, Tomeu Vizoso, and Dan Williams. As an ambitious and wide-ranging project, Sugar and the programs created for it (called activities) often receive contributions from those who consider themselves part of the free software community
-- even some well-established software developers who normally contribute to other open source software projects.
Sugar is intentionally designed to encourage the modification of its activities and core functionality by users, which makes Sugar developers' adoption of an open source development approach seem a fitting choice. Whereas most other desktop environments are written in a compiled language
(e.g., the GNOME
desktop environment, Microsoft Windows XP and Vista were all written mostly in C
), Sugar is written in the interpreted
Python programming language
. This allows for easier modification and customization of Sugar by its users than is often possible with projects written in non-interpreted languages.
and social networking features. As of early 2007, Sugar could be installed (with some difficulty) on a variety of operating systems, including several Linux distribution
s and with in virtual machine
s on Microsoft Windows
and Mac OS X
. Instructions are available on the project's wiki. As of mid 2008, Sugar is available on the Debian
, Ubuntu
, and Fedora
distributions of Linux, e.g., as of Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron), Sugar can be installed from the official Ubuntu universe repositories. As of mid 2009, openSUSE
and other GNU/Linux distributions are also supporting Sugar.
Sugar 0.82.1 was included in the OLPC system software release 8.2.0 for XO-1 laptops.
Sugar 0.86 was released on September 30, 2009. Sugar 0.88 was released on March 31, 2010. Sugar 0.90.0 was released in October, 2010. Builds for OLPC XO laptops are available at OS images.
It is available as a USB-bootable Linux distribution
("Sugar on a Stick") and as software components forming an installable additional desktop environment for most Linux
distributions. It can be installed using the Fedora Live USB Creator
, which now features the option to download the latest release of Sugar on a Stick. And it can be installed onto a computer hard disk using ZyX-LiveInstaller.
On June 23, 2009, Sugar Labs announced the availability of Sugar on a Stick v1 Strawberry. Available free for download at www.sugarlabs.org, Sugar on a Stick can be loaded onto an ordinary 1 GB USB flash drive and used to reboot any PC or netbook directly into the Sugar environment. On July 23, 2009, Recycle USB.com went live with a program to reflash used USB keys with the Sugar software and donate them to schools. On December 8, 2009, Sugar Labs announced the availability of Sugar on a Stick v2 Blueberry, which incorporates Sugar Release 0.86 and Fedora 11. Sugar Labs announced the availability of Sugar on a Stick v3 Mirabelle, which incorporates Sugar Release 0.88 and Fedora 13.
There are hundreds of learning activities available for Sugar that can be downloaded from the Sugar Labs activity portal. Additional activities are available from third parties, such as the Project Ceibal portal in Uruguay
.
has a 1 GB NAND flash drive and 256 MB of memory. Because the flash-based hard drive is small, swap can only be added by using an sd card or a network block device.
When past Fedora Linux-based Sugar distributions are being run on the OLPC XO-1, it is suggested that users not open too many activities at once or they may experience low memory or processor load related performance decreases.
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
desktop environment
Desktop environment
In graphical computing, a desktop environment commonly refers to a style of graphical user interface derived from the desktop metaphor that is seen on most modern personal computers. These GUIs help the user in easily accessing, configuring, and modifying many important and frequently accessed...
designed with the goal of being used by children for learning
Learning
Learning is acquiring new or modifying existing knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, or preferences and may involve synthesizing different types of information. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals and some machines. Progress over time tends to follow learning curves.Human learning...
.
Developed as part of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project, it is the default interface on OLPC XO-1
OLPC XO-1
The XO-1, previously known as the $100 Laptop, Children's Machine, and 2B1, is an inexpensive subnotebook computer intended to be distributed to children in developing countries around the world, to provide them with access to knowledge, and opportunities to "explore, experiment and express...
family of laptop computers.
Unlike most other desktop environment
Desktop environment
In graphical computing, a desktop environment commonly refers to a style of graphical user interface derived from the desktop metaphor that is seen on most modern personal computers. These GUIs help the user in easily accessing, configuring, and modifying many important and frequently accessed...
s, Sugar does not use the "desktop
Desktop metaphor
The desktop metaphor is an interface metaphor which is a set of unifying concepts used by graphical user interfaces to help users more easily interact with the computer. The desktop metaphor treats the monitor of a computer as if it is the user's desktop, upon which objects such as documents and...
", "folder" and "window
Window (computing)
In computing, a window is a visual area containing some kind of user interface. It usually has a rectangular shape that can overlap with the area of other windows...
" metaphors. Instead, Sugar's default full-screen activities require users to focus on only one program at a time. Sugar implements a novel file-handling metaphor (the journal), which automatically saves the user's running program session and allows them to later use an interface to pull up their past works by date, activity used or file type.
Sugar is now developed under the umbrella of Sugar Labs
Sugar Labs
Sugar Labs is a software-development and learning community.Sugar Labs is a non-profit foundation whose mission is to produce, distribute, and support the use of the Sugar learning platform. Sugar Labs supports the community of educators and software developers who want to extend the platform and...
, a nonprofit spin-off of OLPC which began operating in May 2008.
It is available as a LiveCD, as LiveUSB, or as a package installable through several GNU
GNU
GNU is a Unix-like computer operating system developed by the GNU project, ultimately aiming to be a "complete Unix-compatible software system"...
/Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
distributions.
Sugar is free software
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
released under the GNU GPL. As such, its development is done by a variety of contributors, including many who are not employed by Sugar Labs, One Laptop per Child, or any other related organization. The most active contributors to the core Sugar platform include Marco Pesenti Gritti, Walter Bender
Walter Bender
Walter Bender is technologist and researcher who has made important contributions in the field of electronic publishing, media, and technology for learning. Bender is on leave as a Senior Research Scientist at the MIT Media Lab which he led as executive director between 2000 and 2006...
, Christopher Blizzard
Christopher Blizzard
Christopher Blizzard is an Open Source Evangelist working for the Mozilla Corporation and a long-time contributor to Open Source projects, notably with Mozilla, Red Hat, and One Laptop Per Child....
, Eben Eliason, Simon Schampijer, Christian Schmidt, Lisa Strausfeld
Lisa Strausfeld
Lisa Strausfeld is an American design professional. She is a leading Information architect.-Early life:Lisa Strausfeld born in central New Jersey, one of a set of twin daughters of an ob-gyn and an urban planner...
, Takaaki Okada, Tomeu Vizoso, and Dan Williams. As an ambitious and wide-ranging project, Sugar and the programs created for it (called activities) often receive contributions from those who consider themselves part of the free software community
Free software community
The free-software community is an informal term that refers to the users and developers of free software as well as supporters of the free-software movement. The movement is sometimes referred to as the open-source software community or a subset thereof...
-- even some well-established software developers who normally contribute to other open source software projects.
Sugar is intentionally designed to encourage the modification of its activities and core functionality by users, which makes Sugar developers' adoption of an open source development approach seem a fitting choice. Whereas most other desktop environments are written in a compiled language
Compiled language
A compiled language is a programming language whose implementations are typically compilers , and not interpreters ....
(e.g., the GNOME
GNOME
GNOME is a desktop environment and graphical user interface that runs on top of a computer operating system. It is composed entirely of free and open source software...
desktop environment, Microsoft Windows XP and Vista were all written mostly in C
C (programming language)
C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
), Sugar is written in the interpreted
Interpreted language
Interpreted language is a programming language in which programs are 'indirectly' executed by an interpreter program. This can be contrasted with a compiled language which is converted into machine code and then 'directly' executed by the host CPU...
Python programming language
Python (programming language)
Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...
. This allows for easier modification and customization of Sugar by its users than is often possible with projects written in non-interpreted languages.
Design principles
"Low floor, no ceiling" is the mantra used by OLPC - and now Sugar Labs - as motivation for the design and development principles. Sugar aims to be a platform suitable for all kinds of creative expression which provides a low floor to the inexperienced, but doesn't impose a ceiling upon more advanced users. The following list, while certainly not comprehensive, provides a starting point for such considerations.Simplicity
The laptop's hardware limitations have led to much clearer and simpler user interface design, harking back to the early days of the computer. The project's stated goal is to "avoid bloated interfaces", and "limit the controls to those immediately relevant to the task at hand". Applications run full screen; there is no double clicking; and menus are iconic.Status
Sugar is still in development. In May 2006, its creators described it as primarily a "tool for expression," thus plans are in place to include multimediaMultimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
and social networking features. As of early 2007, Sugar could be installed (with some difficulty) on a variety of operating systems, including several Linux distribution
Linux distribution
A Linux distribution is a member of the family of Unix-like operating systems built on top of the Linux kernel. Such distributions are operating systems including a large collection of software applications such as word processors, spreadsheets, media players, and database applications...
s and with in virtual machine
Virtual machine
A virtual machine is a "completely isolated guest operating system installation within a normal host operating system". Modern virtual machines are implemented with either software emulation or hardware virtualization or both together.-VM Definitions:A virtual machine is a software...
s on Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
and Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
. Instructions are available on the project's wiki. As of mid 2008, Sugar is available on the Debian
Debian
Debian is a computer operating system composed of software packages released as free and open source software primarily under the GNU General Public License along with other free software licenses. Debian GNU/Linux, which includes the GNU OS tools and Linux kernel, is a popular and influential...
, Ubuntu
Ubuntu (operating system)
Ubuntu is a computer operating system based on the Debian Linux distribution and distributed as free and open source software. It is named after the Southern African philosophy of Ubuntu...
, and Fedora
Fedora (operating system)
Fedora is a RPM-based, general purpose collection of software, including an operating system based on the Linux kernel, developed by the community-supported Fedora Project and sponsored by Red Hat...
distributions of Linux, e.g., as of Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron), Sugar can be installed from the official Ubuntu universe repositories. As of mid 2009, openSUSE
OpenSUSE
openSUSE is a general purpose operating system built on top of the Linux kernel, developed by the community-supported openSUSE Project and sponsored by SUSE...
and other GNU/Linux distributions are also supporting Sugar.
Sugar 0.82.1 was included in the OLPC system software release 8.2.0 for XO-1 laptops.
Sugar 0.86 was released on September 30, 2009. Sugar 0.88 was released on March 31, 2010. Sugar 0.90.0 was released in October, 2010. Builds for OLPC XO laptops are available at OS images.
It is available as a USB-bootable Linux distribution
Live USB
A live USB is a USB flash drive or a USB external hard disk drive containing a full operating system that can be booted. Live USBs are closely related to live CDs, but sometimes have the ability to persistently save settings and permanently install software packages back onto the USB device...
("Sugar on a Stick") and as software components forming an installable additional desktop environment for most Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
distributions. It can be installed using the Fedora Live USB Creator
Fedora Live USB creator
The Fedora Live USB creator is an official tool designed to create Live USBs of Fedora.-Features:*Cross-platform *Non-destructive install...
, which now features the option to download the latest release of Sugar on a Stick. And it can be installed onto a computer hard disk using ZyX-LiveInstaller.
On June 23, 2009, Sugar Labs announced the availability of Sugar on a Stick v1 Strawberry. Available free for download at www.sugarlabs.org, Sugar on a Stick can be loaded onto an ordinary 1 GB USB flash drive and used to reboot any PC or netbook directly into the Sugar environment. On July 23, 2009, Recycle USB.com went live with a program to reflash used USB keys with the Sugar software and donate them to schools. On December 8, 2009, Sugar Labs announced the availability of Sugar on a Stick v2 Blueberry, which incorporates Sugar Release 0.86 and Fedora 11. Sugar Labs announced the availability of Sugar on a Stick v3 Mirabelle, which incorporates Sugar Release 0.88 and Fedora 13.
There are hundreds of learning activities available for Sugar that can be downloaded from the Sugar Labs activity portal. Additional activities are available from third parties, such as the Project Ceibal portal in Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
.
XO-1 Usage
The OLPC XO-1OLPC XO-1
The XO-1, previously known as the $100 Laptop, Children's Machine, and 2B1, is an inexpensive subnotebook computer intended to be distributed to children in developing countries around the world, to provide them with access to knowledge, and opportunities to "explore, experiment and express...
has a 1 GB NAND flash drive and 256 MB of memory. Because the flash-based hard drive is small, swap can only be added by using an sd card or a network block device.
When past Fedora Linux-based Sugar distributions are being run on the OLPC XO-1, it is suggested that users not open too many activities at once or they may experience low memory or processor load related performance decreases.
See also
- Sugar LabsSugar LabsSugar Labs is a software-development and learning community.Sugar Labs is a non-profit foundation whose mission is to produce, distribute, and support the use of the Sugar learning platform. Sugar Labs supports the community of educators and software developers who want to extend the platform and...
- One Laptop per Child
- Educational softwareEducational softwareEducational software is computer software, the primary purpose of which is teaching or self-learning.-Early History, 1940s - 1970s:The use of computer hardware and software in education and training dates to the early 1940s, when American researchers developed flight simulators which used analog...
- Python (programming language)Python (programming language)Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...
- TouchscreenTouchscreenA touchscreen is an electronic visual display that can detect the presence and location of a touch within the display area. The term generally refers to touching the display of the device with a finger or hand. Touchscreens can also sense other passive objects, such as a stylus...
External links
- Sugar Labs homepage
- Sugar Labs wiki
- Sugar page on the One Laptop per Child wiki
- Sugar FlossManual
- Pie Menus for OLPC Sugar User Interface by Don Hopkins
- Sugar human-interface guidelines
- Sugar source code
- Tutorius Interactive tutor based on Sugar
- Sugar Labs planet
- Aquatic Sugar video & article The Sugar interface presented as it were on modern hardware and designed for adults not children
Media
Video
- Sugar demonstration video from the 2008 Museum of Modern ArtMuseum of Modern ArtThe Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
exhibit that featured Sugar