[IAEP] Sugar on Android (was Questions for SCaLE 11X)

[Ron Feigenblatt]

> On 21 February 2013 09:35, Ron Feigenblatt <docdtv at gmail.com> wrote:
>> The big news is that OLPC reports potential buyers have expressed
>> interest in Android, so it has a plan to move the XO-4 that way...
>> could Sugar sit on top of Android rather than Linux Fedora by then?

On 2/21/13, Daniel Narvaez <dwnarvaez at gmail.com> wrote:
> I think that's never going to happen unless we come up with a plan.
>... I just hope people will realize
> that it's urgent to do something about this...

Let me hazard mockery by citing a very obvious incentive to getting
Sugar to run on Android. If Sugar could be an Android .apk, it could
not merely run on some future Android-based OLPC, but on over a
million new devices EVERY DAY, closing in on a total of a billion -
and be trivial to install in the bargain. Isn't that worth lots more
attention than a million Raspberry Pi's, which aren't even full
appliances, but merely boards mainly of interest to DIY embedded
system guys?

Moving to Android would also address OLPC's new Android-tablet line.
(Perhaps one might even partner with profit-seeking hardware keyboard
aftermarket vendors, by encouraging them to conceptually bundle
Sugar.)

The game console market has been off-limits to Sugar due to large
developer license fees. But what if an Android-based project like the
Ouya (cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouya ), with zero fees, can
prove successful?

On the other hand, with limited developer staffing, maybe Sugar Labs
should just dig in its heels and concentrate on supporting the nearly
3 million units to which the educational systems of at least two
nations have made deep and expensive commitments. Few things have
given the information technology industry a worse name than the rate
at which it often tries to force users to migrate away from legacy
systems, rather than perfect their flaws.

The REALLY BIG CHANGE is not from one electronic learning system to a
newer one, but from one based on printed matter, blank paper and
pencils, to one based on electronics - thereby enabling audio,
animation, photography, interactivity, zero-inventory-zero-unit-cost
courseware, and total portability.