[IAEP] Announcing Sugar on a Stick v.3 (Mirabelle)

[Sebastian Dziallas]

Mirabelles have arrived! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/enil/3892066169/)

I am proud to announce the availability of Sugar on a Stick v.3,
code-named Mirabelle. More information about Sugar on a Stick,
including download and installation details, are available at
http://spins.fedoraproject.org/soas/.

Changes in Sugar on a Stick since the last release (v.2 Blueberry):

Sugar version 0.88. The most recent release of the Sugar Learning
Platform features support for 3G connections, increased accessibility,
and better integration with our Activity Portal
(http://activities.sugarlabs.org) allowing students and teachers to
update their sticks with additional Activities. More information about
the 0.88 release of Sugar is available at
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/0.88/Notes.

Customize your own remix of Sugar on a Stick. You'll notice that v.3
Mirabelle has a smaller Activity selection than its predecessors,
Blueberry and Strawberry. We realized we'll never be able to create an
Activity selection suitable for all deployments - instead, we've
chosen to include and support a core set of basic, teacher-tested
Activities in the default image, and invite deployments to use this as
a base on which to build a customized Activity selection for their
classrooms. Instructions on how to do this are available at
http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/docs/customization-guide/.

Sugar on a Stick is now a Fedora Spin. After two prior releases of
being based on the Fedora distribution, Sugar on a Stick has
recognized by the 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.

The biggest difference in v.3 of Sugar on a Stick has been in its
release processes and engineering sustainability; it's now much easier
for new contributors to get involved. We continue to move towards our
long-term vision of bringing stability and deployability to Sugar's
personalized learning environment, and invite all interested parties
to join us.

If you'd like to contribute to the next version, due for release in
early November, join us at our Contributors Portal at
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_on_a_Stick. All types of
contributions are welcome, from the technical to the pedagogical, and
we're happy to teach what we know and learn what you have to share.

Thank you especially to the Sugar on a Stick team and all the people
involved for their awesome work on this release!

Sebastian Dziallas
Sugar on a Stick Project Lead