Sugar (GUI)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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 The Sugar "home view" |
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| Developed by | Sugar Labs |
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| Written in | Python |
| Operating system | Linux |
| Type | Desktop environment |
| License | GNU General Public License |
| Website | wiki.sugarlabs.org |
Sugar is the graphical user interface originally developed for the One Laptop per Child computer/education project and as of May 2008 being developed under the umbrella of Sugar Labs. Sugar is used on the OLPC XO-1 laptop computer and is also available as a session option on Ubuntu and Fedora. Unlike more traditional desktop environments, it does not use a "desktop" metaphor and only focuses on one task at a time.
Main contributors to the project include Christopher Blizzard and Marco Pesenti Gritti, Eben Eliason, Tomeu Vizoso, Simon Schampijer, Dan Williams, Walter Bender, Christian Schmidt, Lisa Strausfeld, and Takaaki Okada. The free software community has also contributed greatly to Sugar. Released under the GNU GPL, Sugar is free software.
It is written in the interpreted Python programming language, whereas most other environments are written in a compiled language such as C. Sugar is also referred to as the OLPC Python Environment. It is composed of the Python language, GTK GUI and Gecko HTML engine.[1]
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[edit] Design principles
[edit] Performance
The OLPC XO-1 has a 1 GB NAND flash drive and 256 MB of memory. Since there is no swap space and storage space on the laptop, only a limited number of activities can run concurrently.
[edit] Simplicity
The laptop's hardware limitations have led to much more compact program 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".[2]
[edit] Status
Sugar 0.84 was released 2009-03-04.[3][4] 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.
Sugar 0.82.1 was included in the OLPC system software release 8.2.0 for XO-1 laptops.[5]
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 multimedia and social networking features.[6] As of early 2007, Sugar could be installed (with some difficulty) on a variety of operating systems, including several Linux distributions, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. Instructions are available on the project's wiki.[7] 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.[8] Fedora Live CD with Sugar Desktop Environment can be downloaded from http://sdz.fedorapeople.org/olpc/.
[edit] Screenshots
 Sugar home view. |
 Neighborhood |
 Sugar home view from pre-0.82 releases. |
 Mesh network friends view. |
 Sugar Pippy activity view. |
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[edit] References
- ^ OLPC software task list:Python development, from laptop.org
- ^ Human Interface Key Design Principles, from laptop.org
- ^ [ANNOUNCE] Sucrose 0.84.0 Final Release
- ^ "Sugar Labs Nonprofit Announces New Version of Sugar Learning Platform for Children, Runs on Netbooks and PCs". MarketWatch (WSJ). 2009-03-16. http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/sugar-labs-nonprofit-announces-new/story.aspx?guid={EF4B8934-0046-465F-AD4D-E82FBCE8F1EC}&dist=msr_7. Retrieved on 2009-03-16.
- ^ API changes, retrieved 2009-03-13
- ^ Christopher Blizzard's weblog, May 2006
- ^ Category:Installing Sugar from laptop.org
- ^ Sugar on Ubuntu Linux - OLPC
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sugar (GUI) |
- 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
[edit] Media
[edit] Video
Flash required.
- Sugar demonstration video from the 2008 Museum of Modern Art exhibit that featured Sugar
OLPC Sugar video 1 - synthLab demo at YouTube
OLPC Sugar video 2 - mini Tam Tam demo at YouTube
OLPC Sugar video 3 - social features demo at YouTube
