OLPC Fork Sugar On a Stick Goes 1.0 146
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by
Soulskill
from the one-easily-lost-usb-stick-per-child dept.
from the one-easily-lost-usb-stick-per-child dept.
Marten writes "It was more than a year ago that Walter Bender left OLPC and started SugarLabs.org. Now, the first version of the new project has been released. Sugar on a Stick is a USB drive that runs on Mac and PC-style hardware. 'The open-source education software developed for the "$100 laptop" can now be loaded onto a $5 USB stick to give aging PCs and Macs a new interface and custom educational software.' Bender said, 'What we are doing is taking a bunch of old machines that barely run Windows 2000, and turning them into something interesting and useful for essentially zero cost. It becomes a whole new computer running off the USB key; we can breathe new life into millions of decrepit old machines.'"
Um, (Score:3, Insightful)
What we are doing is taking a bunch of old machines that barely run Windows 2000, and turning them into something interesting and useful for essentially zero cost. It becomes a whole new computer running off the USB key; we can breathe new life into millions of decrepit old machines
The problem with that is that a lot of computers that old don't support booting off of a USB drive. Plus, some of the computers might only have USB 1.1 leading to slower transfer times. If this is your goal why not try to have it be "sugar on a disk" thats going to be infinitely easier than "sugar on a stick".
Re:Does he really think schools are going to do it (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Does he really think schools are going to do it (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Does he really think schools are going to do it (Score:2, Insightful)
It prepared you for all of them. You know, most humans have to crawl before they walk; walk before the run; mumble before they speak.. etc.. Some skills you learn in life just so you have the fundamental knowledge to learn the subsequent intermediate and advanced skills. Unless of course you were born with all knowledge of everything in future. In that case why did you even bother posting?
Re:Old computers boot from USB? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Does he really think schools are going to do it (Score:5, Insightful)
Fact1: Kids are not learning any OS. They are learning to navigate a UI and exposing them to multiples enhances critical thinking instead of rote memorization.
Fact2: The OS means nothing, there are near ZERO highschools teaching an OS, and negative 10 grade schools teaching an OS. From your logic, people should be crying in the streets because the iphone is not like windows.
And yes, if the programming classes in highschools did fortran or cobol instead of the abortion that is basic. From my daughters experience her Computer science class at her highschool was a complete and utter joke.
Re:Does he really think schools are going to do it (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:USB better, stores the kid's data (Score:4, Insightful)
Why aren't more schools doing something like that? Issue/sell USB flash sticks with the OS on it to kids, that way they can essentially carry their entire computer with them to home and school. Give the kids OS-less computers at school to boot with their sticks, and you can stop spending so much money on OS support for every single terminal.
Re:Old computers boot from USB? (Score:3, Insightful)
Well not necessarily. If the 'sugar on a stick' build expects to be able to write to the stick, you'd need to add something like UnionFS in order to be able to run it from a cdrom. Not to mention that you'd need to setup something to keep users' settings in between reboots (e.g. a usb stick).