[IAEP] SoaS change of direction: heads-up on convos in other lists

[Edward Cherlin]

On Sat, Mar 20, 2010 at 12:32, Gary C Martin <gary at garycmartin.com> wrote:
> Hi Martin,
>
> On 20 Mar 2010, at 15:54, Martin Langhoff wrote:
>
>> On Fri, Mar 19, 2010 at 10:23 PM, Mel Chua <mel at melchua.com> wrote:
>>> The short version is that instead of "include all Activites by default,"
>>> we're thinking of shipping very few (6) Activities by default - the ones
>>> that help users get further Activities and help
>>
>> I read Sebastian's post... and is less drastic than that. He seems to
>> say: include only the well tested, known to work, actively maintained
>> activities, with an eye towards activitries that serve as a good intro
>> to the platform and that demo well.
>>
>> But you say only 6... Which one is it?
>
> This is what I see in the kickstart file:
>
>        http://git.sugarlabs.org/projects/soas/repos/mainline/blobs/master/fedora-livecd-soas.ks
>
> # == sugar activities ==
> sugar-browse # Because they need this to install activities.
> sugar-log # Because they need this for debugging.
> sugar-physics # Because this is a great demo example (quick demo).
> sugar-terminal # Because this makes debugging easier.
> sugar-turtleart # Because this is a great demo example (extended demo).
> sugar-xoirc # Because this helps us help them.

Not a bad minimum list, but what prevents us from installing a few
more? What information do we have on which others work best? (Language
support, no blocker bugs, really good demos of education...) I assume
that we have to omit activities that depend on the camera or the sound
system.

I would like to see a few additions.

o Write and Paint, excellent examples of collaboration

o Chat for making friends, sharing tips and experiences, organizing
collaborations

o Pippy and Etoys for introductory programming

o Scratch for multimedia

I have not had any issues with any of them lately.

Other votes, please.

>> The initial proposal I like; makes a lot of sense and raises the bar.
>> IT basically increases the chances of a satisfactory first use.
>>
>> Six activities not so much -- you need many steps + internet to add
>> activities... and it'll be "random activity from ASLO, may well be
>> unstable or useless". It significantly _reduces_ chances of
>> satisfaction.
>>
>> All IMHO...
>
> +1, six does seem rather slim, more of a technical taster for a developer audience (not necessarily a bad thing in the right context). Walter mentioned perhaps making this a Fedora spin, rather than an official SoaS release aimed at our real target users (teachers/children)?
>
> Regards,
> --Gary
>
> P.S. I am worried about reports of several previously well working activities that seem to be currently broken in recent SoaS builds (Write and IRC), unfortunately I don't have time to often test under SoaS (other than the official Blueberry) as well as my regular day to day sugar-jhbuild set-up (F10).
>
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-- 
Edward Mokurai (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://www.earthtreasury.org/