[Sugar-devel] Sugar as desktop os

[Edward Cherlin]

2009/7/10 Philippe Clérié <philippe at gcal.net>:
> I am looking into implenting sugar for a Montessori school.

Maria would be so pleased. +1

Where is your school? Is there a Sugar/XO user group nearby?

> The
> current plan is to start with 10 to 20 (depending on budget)
> computers for a group of about 100 students from 6 to 13, and usage
> would be on a rotating basis by groups.
>
> At this stage, there is no plan to supply each child with a
> computer. On the other hand, if this implementation is reasonably
> successful then the school will probably recommend that parents buy
> computers for their children.

I would suggest getting donations of 100  computers, and providing
Sugar on a Stick to every student. That way, they could continue at
home. Talk to any computer recycler about taking systems with no hard
drive, and to any Linux User Group that does Installfests.

> As things stand now what I was hoping to do is :
>
> - Install Sugar on each computer as the main OS.
> - Setup a server to hold the kids' home directories and provide
> other services as needed (routing and chat among other things...).
>
> I am familiar with the XO and I have downloaded Sugar on a Stick to
> try it out.
>
> My first problem with SaoS is that there is no easy way to install
> the OS on a hard disk. By easy, I mean something like a) boot the
> stick, b) click on install to hard disk, or something equivalent.

That's the hard way. Use a package manager like Synaptic to install
Sugar. You will get more Activities that way.

or

yum install sugar (Fedora)
apt-get install sugar (Debian, Ubuntu)

> (As a side note, SaoS includes none of the sound/music applications!
> That's a huge loss!)

Jukebox is included but not selected as a Favorite. There is a
technical discussion going on about sound in SoaS. When it is
finished, you can expect to see more.

> I looked at the distributions I use, Debian and Ubuntu, and at
> Fedora because Sugar is derived from it. All three seem to have
> small problems.

If so, please check and if necessary file bug reports. We'll help you.
The only issue I am aware of is that Sugar is broken in Ubuntu Jaunty.
What problems do you see?

> In addition it seems that they all require a sugar-
> emulator and it's not clear to me what is being emulated.

It's just the name of the program that starts everything. It is in a
sense emulating an XO within a separate X session. But it isn't the
fake version of some original that we're hiding from you. :)

> I'm on a short schedule (only 4/6 weeks to procure and setup) so I
> am looking for quick answers to avoid blind alleys while doing the
> necessary research.
>
> Any comments/pointers welcome. Mostly I think what I'd like to know
> is whether what I'm thinking of is even possible. Specifically, is it
> possible

There are some issues in configuring a school server that you will
need to ask about. We need the experts to write a procedure for a
reasonable configuration with Jabber and Moodle, and put it into the
Wiki.

> and how difficult would it be to have share use of a computer
> with Sugar as the only desktop OS?

It is of course possible. But it is like sharing one pencil among five
or ten students. You can't integrate it into a curriculum.

This may not be so bad in a Montessori environment, where children
don't all work on the same topic together. So if some children are
using the traditional Montessori equipment, and some the computer, you
will no doubt find a balance.

I will be interested to know what balance point the children come to.
It will no doubt vary by age and perhaps other factors. That
information would be worth an article in one of the Montessori
publications. I volunteer to write it if you and the teachers are
willing to collect the data.

> Thanks in advance!
>
> Note: The hardware I am looking at is the HP Mini 110 Mi and the
> System76 Starling Netbook.

More than adequate.

> --
>
>
> Philippe
>
> ------
> The trouble with common sense is that it is so uncommon.
> <Anonymous>

 +1

-- 
Silent Thunder (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) is my name
And Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, The Truth my destination.
http://earthtreasury.org/worknet (Edward Mokurai Cherlin)