[IAEP] segregated activities from the sugar platform

[David Van Assche]

Hi there,
   This may seem like a bit of a premature email, but it comes in
reference to questions I was asked at the guadalinex offices about
adding Sugar to their distribution. They mentioned there is a lot of
freedom as to what content and activitities/applications can be put
into the distro, but not so much freedom when it comes to marketing,
naming, base foundations, etc. Thats a shame because the name
guadalinex really sucks :p but its great because they are genuinenly
interested in running sugar activities in guadalinex. I explained that
with the move to metacity this would be a possibility in the not too
distant future (I hope I did not speak out of tone.) There is also the
very strong likeleyhood that they would use LTSP and iTalc as a method
of distribution and control. The team I saw was MUCH bigger than I
expected (a good 300 people working behind computers) and the
interview process was highly formal, modern and professional. It even
included a type of psych evaluation, although many of the questions
were related to my experience in the field (logical) and what kind of
tech we should be iImplementing today, so that in 5 years time we
would be in the right playing field. They asked where I saw the distro
and linux for education being in 5 years, which is an amazingly
difficult question to answer. In fact, I'd love to hear some of your
thoughts on that one... They also wondered how it was possible that I
would take such a job for so little money, so I guess its not totally
obvious to many people that tech in education is actually a lot of fun
and worth being paid less for, than doing some boring sysadmin job
that really does nothing more than fill the pockets of the company
being worked for. Anyway, I really hope I get a positive answer soon,
and when I do, the job they want me to take there is a kind of linux
ambassador... that is to say, someone who connects up with the
necesary folk and finds out whats happening and whats worth
implementing in the land of education and linux... One thing is
relatively sure... Sugar will be running on these roughly 1 million
computers in one form or another.,.,., So the playing field just got a
whole lot bigger... in fact, it would mean the xo would suddenly be a
minority... lol For general information, though this is not very
known, in sheer numbers, they are the biggest edu linux initiative in
the world, and have been around for 6 years now. They seem to have
bypassed many hurdles other such initiatives had and they say their
schools are generally very happy. But, like all projects, they lack
content...


kind regards,
David (nubae) Van Assche