[Sugar-devel] Python is good - don't waste time (was Re: The future of Sugar on XO-1s)

[Tony Anderson]

My dream is that someone ports gnu/linux to run on low-cost tablets. 
Rabi Karmacharya, with lots of experience, believes we need at least a 
10in screen.
I think the tablet needs to be in a leather (or substantially 
ruggedized) case with a keyboard (wired usb or wireless).

Suppose someone approached you with the idea of sponsoring a one laptop 
per child deployment in the developing world. This would
require 200 laptops. What platform would you recommend?

How would an Android tablet work without any possibility of connection 
to the internet?

I believe that a deployment is a system. Tediously, I have claimed the 
essential need of a school server to provide the content which
is not available without the internet. The deployment must have a way to 
charge the laptops and to power the server and its local network.

For me, the most difficult thing has been to find a way to inform 
non-technical users on how to take good advantage of the laptops in the 
absence of an on-site system adminstrator. Addressing the problem was 
why I was so intrigued by the 'onboarding' idea. Typically, I get 1-2 
weeks at a deployment per year. My model is a ball which needs a shove 
periodically to counter friction and keep it moving.

Luckily there is no pressure to move away from standard software on the 
server side (CentOS).

Tony

On 04/06/2016 02:59 PM, sam at sam.today wrote:
> Hi Dave,
>
> On Wed, Apr 6, 2016 at 10:46 AM, Dave Crossland <dave at lab6.com> wrote:
>> I would be happy if by 2020 the "classic" Sugar desktop was totally 
>> gone. Zero Python! In its place could be a laptop OS derived from 
>> ChromiumOS, plus a nodejs web server serving on localhost that is 
>> stuffed full of activities and content.
>
> Why?  Why do we throw out the great technologies we have now?  Why do 
> we waste out time replacing Telepathy (amazing back end for 
> collaboration)?  Why do we waste our time replacing GtkSourceView? 
>  AbiWord?  WebKitGtk?  Gtk?  These are great technologies.  Sure they 
> are not the current trend.  But unlike your proposed nodejs server, we 
> don't end up in callback hell.
>
> We have a technology stack that we have used for over 10 years.  Those 
> people who OLPC paid to start writing sugar made good choices; they 
> left us with a great foundation even as OLPC down sizes.  It works 
> great across keyboard, mouse and touch (can sugarizer even show a 
> tooltip on long touch?).  It works great on slow computers (my trusty 
> old Core2Duo laptop runs sugar faster than Sugarizer/webkit).  It 
> works great off-line (collaboration over salut doesn't need a centeral 
> server). And all the activities are written in python now.
>
> Why waste time to javashit it?  You can install GNU on a chromebook, 
> you can install GNU on computer, you can install GNU on some tablets. 
>  Those are the pedagogic devices of now and the future.  Those run 
> faster with Gtk than with WebKit.
>
> Don't waste time.
>
> Thanks,
> Sam
>
> [GNU in this post refers to GNU/Linux]
>
>
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