Sugar (desktop environment)

Last updated
Sugar
Developer(s) Sugar Labs
Initial releaseMay 2006;17 years ago (2006-05)
Stable release
0.119 [1]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg / 23 April 2022
Repository
Written in Python, [2] PyGTK, GTK+
Operating system Linux
Available in25 languages [2]
Type Desktop environment
License GNU General Public License
Website sugarlabs.org

Sugar is a free and open-source desktop environment designed for interactive learning by children. It was developed by SugarLabs. [2] [3] Developed as part of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project, Sugar was the default interface on OLPC XO-1 laptop computers. The OLPC XO-1.5 and later provided the option of either the Gnome or Sugar interfaces. [4]

Contents

Sugar is available as a Live CD, as Live USB, and a package installable through several Linux distributions. [2]

Unlike most other desktop environments, 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 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, an activity used, or file type.

Design principles

Sugar has the objective of being suitable for even inexperienced users but provides more advanced facilities for the more experienced. The project's stated goal is to "avoid bloated interfaces", and "limit the controls to those immediately relevant to the task at hand.". [5] Applications run full screen, double-clicking is not used, and menus show icons.

Sugar is written in Python, [2] an interpreted language, and can be modified by users with programming experience. Desktop environments used by many operating systems are written in compiled languages such as C.

Software components

Applications developed by Sugar Labs are very pragmatic which offers several opportunities to avail which enhances the skills and makes them dexterous in their field. Sugar Activities include Turtle Blocks 3D, Ruler, Recall and many more.

This is the example which provides different activities in Sugar. Sugar Activity Library.png
This is the example which provides different activities in Sugar.

Hundreds of learning activities for Sugar can be downloaded from the Sugar Activity Library. Additional activities are available from third parties, such as the Project Ceibal portal in Uruguay.

History

In May 2006 Sugar's developers described it as primarily a "tool for expression," and plans were in place to include multimedia and social networking features. [6]

Since May 2008 Sugar has been developed under the umbrella of Sugar Labs, a member project of the Software Freedom Conservancy. [3] Some contributors are employed by One Laptop per Child and other related organizations, others are volunteers, in many cases associated with the free software community. [7] Contributors to the original Sugar platform included Marco Pesenti Gritti, Walter Bender, Christopher Blizzard, Eben Eliason, Simon Schampijer, Christian Schmidt, Lisa Strausfeld, Takaaki Okada, Tomeu Vizoso, and Dan Williams. [8]

Cross-platform

By early 2007 Sugar could be installed, with some difficulty, on several Linux distributions, and in virtual machines on other operating systems. [9] By mid-2008 Sugar was available on the Debian, Ubuntu, and Fedora distributions of Linux; e.g., as of Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron), Sugar could be installed from the official Ubuntu universe repositories. [10] By mid-2009 Sugar was also available on openSUSE [11] and other Linux distributions. [9] Sugar 0.82.1 was included in the OLPC system software release 8.2.0 for XO-1 laptops. [12] Sugar 0.86 was released on September 30, 2009. [13] Sugar 0.88 was released on March 31, 2010. [14] Sugar 0.90.0 was released in October, 2010. [15] There were three releases in 2011 and one in June 2012, which included support for the ARM architecture on the XO 1.75. Builds for OLPC XO laptops and the release schedule are available at OS releases. Sugar has been ported to run on Android, Firefox OS and iOS using HTML5 and JavaScript under the project name " Sugarizer "; with additional clients written for Web browsers supporting HTML5. [16]

Sugar on a Stick

The Sugar learning platform for Linux is available as a USB-bootable Linux distribution ("Sugar on a Stick" [17] also known as "SoaS") and as software components forming an installable additional desktop environment for most Linux distributions. [3] It can be installed using the Fedora Live USB Creator, and can be installed onto a computer hard disk using the liveinst command from a Sugar Terminal or console.

On June 23, 2009, Sugar Labs announced the availability for download of Sugar on a Stick v1 Strawberry, which can run from a bootable 1 GB USB flash drive. [3] [18] 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. [19] 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. [20] Sugar Labs announced the availability of Sugar on a Stick v3 Mirabelle, which incorporates Sugar Release 0.88 and Fedora 13. [21] Since Mirabelle, Sugar on a Stick has been a regular, semi-annual, Fedora Spin (official special-purpose version of Fedora); [22] the a Spin using Fedora v22 was released on 26 May 2015. [23]

XO-1 Usage

The OLPC XO-1 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. [24]

If too many activities are loaded at the same time there may be performance problems due to low memory or processor load. [25]

Releases

XO releases

Sugar has had many XO releases.

Raspberry Pi releases

Sugar can be run on a Raspberry Pi. It is recommended to use SOAS to run Sugar on one. You can learn how to run Sugar on a Raspberry Pi on Sugar Lab's website.

Sugar on a Stick releases

Strawberry

The Sugar on a Stick Strawberry release is based on Fedora 11 with the latest updates as of June 22, 2009. It features a Sugar learning environment, namely version 0.84, including 40 Activities to enrich the learning experience. Hundreds of Activities are available for download from the Sugar activity library. This release includes Fedora updates, Sugar features like View Source and file transfer, supplementary sample content, which is available in the Journal, and usability improvements.

Blueberry

Sugar on a Stick v2 Blueberry was released on 8 December 2009. It is based on F12 version of the Fedora operating system. It contains many features that improve the overall user and learning experience. Here is an overview of the most notable ones:

  • Sugar on a stick v2 Blueberry ships Sugar release, 0.86.3. Its features are:
    1. Redesigned toolbars
    2. Better Gnash support for Adobe Flash content
    3. Improved wireless networking
    4. Support for tabbed browsing
    5. EPUB file support for e-books
    6. Easier keyboard-configuration
    7. Easy way to update to the latest activities
  • ZyX-LiveInstaller:
  1. In high demand was a software to install Sugar to a hard disk. Hence Sugar teamed up the zyx-liveinstaller developer to provide:
    • Seamless installation of the personalized environment into your computer's hard disk;
    • It saves changes made to Sugar;
    • It does not require boot again and again.
  • Activities
  1. It includes updates to the standard collection of Activities for children and many new ones. An example is TamTam activity suite, which takes the user on a journey through Sound and Music.

Mirabelle

Mirabelle was the 3rd release of the Sugar on a Stick project. It was released on 25 May 2010.

  • Sugar version 0.88 features:
  1. Support for 3G connections
  2. Increased accessibility
  3. Better integration with activity portal
  • Sugar on a Stick is now a Fedora spin. After two prior releases of being based on Fedora Distribution, Sugar on a Stick has been recognized by Fedora Project as an official Spin. This ties us more closely to Fedora's release cycle and gives us resources from their engineering and marketing teams, which extends the reach of Sugar on a Stick and makes the project itself more sustainable. In exchange, users of Fedora have access to an easily deployable implementation of the Sugar Platform; it's a great example of a mutually beneficial upstream-downstream relationship.
  • Contributing to Sugar on a Stick – The biggest difference in v3 has been in its release processes and engineering sustainability;

Mango Lassi

Mango Lassi was the 4th version of Sugar on a Stick released on 2 November 2010. It uses the Sugar version 0.90.

Coconut

It is the 5th version of Sugar on a Stick released on 9 October 2011. It uses a Sugar version 0.92.

Pineapple

It is the 6th version of Sugar on a Stick released on 8 November 2011. It uses a Sugar version 0.94.1.

Quadong

It is the 7th version of Sugar on a Stick released on 29 May 2012. It uses a Sugar version 0.96.1.

ʻŌhelo ʻai

It is the 8th version of Sugar on a Stick released on 15 January 2013. It uses a sugar version 0.98.2.

Avocado

It is the 9th version of Sugar on a Stick released on 2 July 2013. It uses a Sugar version 0.98.8.

10

It is the 10th version of Sugar on a Stick released on 17 December 2013. It uses a Sugar version 0.100.0.

Later versions

Sugar has stopped giving official names to SoaS releases, however, it continues to create new versions for each Fedora release. The latest version of Sugar is 0.112. Sugar has released its latest versions for the latest Fedoras: Fedora 23, Fedora 24, Fedora 25, Fedora 26, and Fedora 27.

Sugar on Various Operating Systems

Sugar is available preinstalled on several Linux operating systems and among the most notable ones:

Fedora Spin SoaS

An edition of Fedora with Sugar. It is also officially featured by The Sugar Project's Wiki on its Sugar on a Stick (SoaS) web page..

Trisquel Sugar Toast

An official edition of Trisquel GNU/Linux with Sugar. It is recommended by The Sugar Project as per 2020.

Screenshots

Sugarizer

Sugarizer is an HTML and JavaScript based application that allows for using Sugar functionality on any device. It is available as both a web application and a mobile app. It offers a similar user interface and includes features of Sugar Core (datastore and journal), as well as many of the same Sugar activities.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linux distribution</span> Operating system based on the Linux kernel

A Linux distribution is an operating system made from a software collection that includes the Linux kernel and often a package management system. Linux users usually obtain their operating system by downloading one of the Linux distributions, which are available for a wide variety of systems ranging from embedded devices and personal computers to powerful supercomputers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mandriva Linux</span> Linux distribution

Mandriva Linux is a discontinued Linux distribution developed by Mandriva S.A.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ubuntu</span> Linux distribution developed by Canonical

Ubuntu is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed mostly of free and open-source software. Ubuntu is officially released in multiple editions: Desktop, Server, and Core for Internet of things devices and robots. The operating system is developed by the British company Canonical, and a community of other developers, under a meritocratic governance model. As of October 2023, the most-recent release is 23.10, and the current long-term support release is 22.04.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">One Laptop per Child</span> Non-profit initiative

One Laptop per Child (OLPC) was a non-profit initiative established with the goal of transforming education for children around the world; this goal was to be achieved by creating and distributing educational devices for the developing world, and by creating software and content for those devices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PulseAudio</span> Sound server for Unix-like operating systems

PulseAudio is a network-capable sound server program distributed via the freedesktop.org project. It runs mainly on Linux, including Windows Subsystem for Linux on Microsoft Windows and Termux on Android; various BSD distributions such as FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and macOS; as well as Illumos distributions and the Solaris operating system. It serves as a middleware in between applications and hardware and handles raw PCM audio streams.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pepper Pad</span> Linux-based mobile computer

The Pepper Pad was a family of Linux-based mobile computers with Internet capability and which doubled as a handheld game console. They also served as a portable multimedia device. The devices used Bluetooth and Wi-Fi technologies for Internet connection. Pepper Pads are now obsolete, unsupported and the parent company has ceased operations.

The Classmate PC, formerly known as Eduwise, is Intel's entry into the market for low-cost personal computers for children in the developing world. It is in some respects similar to the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) trade association's Children's Machine (XO), which has a similar target market. Although made for profit, the Classmate PC is considered an Information and Communication Technologies for Development project (ICT4D). Introduced in 2006, the device falls into the then popular category of netbooks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linux Mint</span> Ubuntu-based Linux distribution

Linux Mint is a community-driven Linux distribution based on Ubuntu, bundled with a variety of free and open-source applications. It can provide full out-of-the-box multimedia support for those who choose to include proprietary software such as multimedia codecs. Compared to Ubuntu, it uses the Cinnamon interface by default, using a different, more traditional layout that can be customized by dragging the applets and creating panels. New applets can also be downloaded.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CNR (software)</span>

CNR, or One-Click & Run, was a free one-click software delivery service that was created to make finding and installing Linux software easier. It assisted the user in finding and installing software on their computer, and sat dormant in the system tray when not in use.

Bitfrost is the security design specification for the OLPC XO, a low cost laptop intended for children in developing countries and developed by the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project. Bitfrost's main architect is Ivan Krstić. The first public specification was made available in February 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fedora Linux</span> Linux distribution by Fedora Project

Fedora Linux is a Linux distribution developed by the Fedora Project. It was originally developed in 2003 as a continuation of the Red Hat Linux project. It contains software distributed under various free and open-source licenses and aims to be on the leading edge of open-source technologies. It is now the upstream source for CentOS Stream and Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OLPC XO</span> Laptop computer

The OLPC XO is a low cost laptop 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 themselves". The XO was developed by Nicholas Negroponte, a co-founder of MIT's Media Lab, and designed by Yves Behar's Fuseproject company. The laptop is manufactured by Quanta Computer and developed by One Laptop per Child (OLPC), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ubuntu Netbook Edition</span> Netbook Linux distribution

Ubuntu Netbook Edition (UNE), known as Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR) prior to the release of Ubuntu 10.04, is a discontinued version of the Ubuntu operating system (OS) that had been optimized to enable it to work better on netbooks and other devices with small screens or with the Intel Atom CPU.

Sugar Labs is a community-run software project whose mission is to produce, distribute, and support the use of Sugar, an open source desktop environment and learning platform. Sugar Labs was initially established as a member project of the Software Freedom Conservancy, an umbrella organization for free software (FLOSS) projects., but in 2021, it became an independent 501(c)(3) organization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GNOME Shell</span> Graphical shell of the GNOME desktop environment

GNOME Shell is the graphical shell of the GNOME desktop environment starting with version 3, which was released on April 6, 2011. It provides basic functions like launching applications, switching between windows and is also a widget engine. GNOME Shell replaced GNOME Panel and some ancillary components of GNOME 2.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kiwix</span> Open-source offline browser for public domain projects

Kiwix is a free and open-source offline web browser created by Emmanuel Engelhart and Renaud Gaudin in 2007. It was first launched to allow offline access to Wikipedia, but has since expanded to include other projects from the Wikimedia Foundation, public domain texts from Project Gutenberg, many of the Stack Exchange sites, and many other resources. Available in more than 100 languages, Kiwix has been included in several high-profile projects, from smuggling operations in North Korea to Google Impact Challenge's recipient Bibliothèques Sans Frontières.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ubuntu Kylin</span> Derivative of the Ubuntu operating system

Ubuntu Kylin is the official Chinese version of the Ubuntu computer operating system. It is intended for desktop and laptop computers, and has been described as a "loose continuation of the Chinese Kylin OS". In 2013, Canonical Ltd. reached an agreement with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to co-create and release an Ubuntu-based operating system with features targeted at the Chinese market.

X2Go is open source remote desktop software for Linux that uses a modified NX 3 protocol. X2Go gives remote access to a Linux system's graphical user interface. It can also be used to access Windows systems through a proxy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Snap (software)</span> Software deployment system for Linux by Canonical

Snap is a software packaging and deployment system developed by Canonical for operating systems that use the Linux kernel and the systemd init system. The packages, called snaps, and the tool for using them, snapd, work across a range of Linux distributions and allow upstream software developers to distribute their applications directly to users. Snaps are self-contained applications running in a sandbox with mediated access to the host system. Snap was originally released for cloud applications but was later ported to also work for Internet of Things devices and desktop applications.

References

  1. Error: Unable to display the reference properly. See the documentation for details.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Sugar Labs Features". Archived from the original on 25 May 2011. Retrieved 4 May 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Paul, Ryan (2009-06-26). "Sugar on a Stick brings sweet taste of Linux to classrooms". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2010-01-10.
  4. "Video: XO-1.5 Laptop Dual Boot - Gnome and Sugar UI - OLPC News". www.olpcnews.com. Retrieved 2015-06-01.
  5. "Human Interface Guidelines/Design Fundamentals/Key Design Principles". Wiki.sugarlabs.org. 2009-09-15. Retrieved 2012-05-20.
  6. "some more sugar notes | Christopher Blizzard". 0xdeadbeef.com. 2006-05-23. Archived from the original on 2006-06-02. Retrieved 2012-05-20.
  7. "Sugar commit counts". Ohloh. Retrieved 2009-10-22.
  8. Bender, Walter; Kane, Charles; Cornish, Jody; Donahue, Neal (December 2012). Learning to Change the World: The Social Impact of One Laptop per Child . Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN   9780230337312.
  9. 1 2 "Downloads". Wiki.sugarlabs.org. 2012-04-14. Retrieved 2012-05-20.
  10. Sugar on Ubuntu Linux - OLPC
  11. Sugar - openSUSE , retrieved 2009-07-31
  12. "API changes - OLPC". Wiki.laptop.org. Retrieved 2012-05-20.
  13. "[ANNOUNCE] Sucrose 0.86.0 Final Release" . Retrieved 2009-10-22.
  14. "[ANNOUNCE] Sugar 0.88.0 stable release in Fedora 13 and testing of daily images" . Retrieved 2010-06-03.
  15. Robert Burderi. "One Ecosystem Per Child". xconomy. Retrieved 2010-10-05.
  16. Laské, Lionel. "Sugarizer: A taste of Sugar on any device" . Retrieved 24 May 2015.
  17. "Sugar on a Stick". Wiki.sugarlabs.org. Retrieved 2012-05-20.
  18. $100 Laptop Becomes a $5 PC, Technology Review, 2009-06-24
  19. RecycleUSB.com - Donate your Flash Drives for a Good Cause, Everything USB, 2009-07-23, archived from the original on 2010-01-28
  20. "New Sugar on a Stick Brings Much Needed Improvements", Wired, 2009-12-09
  21. Sugar on a Stick gets sweeter with Fedora Linux, Internet News, 2010-05-28, archived from the original on 2010-06-02, retrieved 2010-06-04
  22. Fedora Sugar Spin
  23. Sugar-on-a-Stick with Fedora v22
  24. "Swap - OLPC". Wiki.laptop.org. Retrieved 2012-05-20.
  25. "Release notes/8.2.0 - OLPC". Wiki.laptop.org. Retrieved 2012-05-20.