[Sugar-devel] Vision

[Tony Anderson]

I understand. At least that should put an end to your accusation of whining.

Tony

On 04/21/2016 10:03 AM, James Cameron wrote:
> I don't have the network resources to prepare and upload images on
> speculation.
>
> On Thu, Apr 21, 2016 at 09:58:31AM +0800, Tony Anderson wrote:
>> James
>>
>> If you have an image you want tested that can be installed on an SD
>> card for the XO-1, I'll make the time. Since the XO-1 has an early
>> version installed,
>> it should be possible to measure time for various operations. I
>> probably won't realistically be able to devote time until mid-May.
>>
>> I generally advise teachers to have the students close the lid
>> rather than shutdown between lessons. I also show them the frame and
>> the number of running activities. Many impatient kids will have 10
>> or more instances running. So restoring the throttle we once had
>> would be very helpful - possibly more than swap.
>>
>> The Apple II was very successful in schools - anyone want to compare
>> its performance with an XO-1? Generally, students at deployments did
>> not buy the XO and do not have any other computer available. Here in
>> the Philippines, smartphones and tablet are common. However, in
>> Rwanda, the Nokia still reigns.
>>
>> Most importantly, the XO gives the students a chance to learn that
>> they can make the computer do what they want it to do and not just
>> accept what they are given.
>>
>> Tony
>>
>> On 04/21/2016 06:27 AM, James Cameron wrote:
>>> On Wed, Apr 20, 2016 at 05:22:21PM -0400, Dave Crossland wrote:
>>>> On 20 April 2016 at 16:46, James Cameron <[1]quozl at laptop.org> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>      the performance ratio between our low-cost
>>>>      low-power hardware and the competition was already evident on Fedora
>>>>      Linux; it didn't need Windows to expose it
>>>>
>>>> Sorry if this is an obvious question, but, can anything done to make
>>>> Sugar feel faster on XO-1s today?
>>> Yes, and I've been doing some of that in the past few months.  With
>>> 13.2.7 you have my latest work, which added swap and removed several
>>> animations.
>>>
>>> Adding swap has mostly removed memory pressure.  Under memory
>>> pressure, activity startup is roughly doubled, as the CPU spends time
>>> thrashing in the memory management.  Disadvantage is higher power cost
>>> and possibly decreased Flash endurance, although the endurance of a
>>> set of heavily used XO-1 has shown no sign of the deterioration
>>> expected by now.
>>>
>>> Removing animations has allowed CPU cycles to be better spent on
>>> responsiveness.  At one stage we had 50/50 competition between the
>>> activity launch animation and the starting activity.  Instrumenting
>>> the frame and transition box animations showed there was enough time
>>> for only one or two intermediate animation states before the final
>>> state; which turned out to the cost of handling the function key
>>> release event.  Some of these changes are not in Sugar master yet, but
>>> in an OLPC branch; one such was proposed, but immediately closed with
>>> appeal to process;
>>>
>>> 	https://github.com/sugarlabs/sugar/pull/619
>>>
>>> As for what to do next; ideas are welcome, but here's a few;
>>>
>>> - profiling, of startup, of interactive response, (i've used xdotool
>>>    for interactive response tests),
>>>
>>> - upgrade Gtk3, and GObject, to fix the memory leaks,
>>>
>>> - record metrics of response, deidentify, aggregate, and report.
>>>
>>> Although at this stage the interest in XO-1 should have degraded as
>>> the units have degraded, and any return on investment is doubtful.
>>>
>>> Plenty of people left who whinge about XO-1, but ask them to test a
>>> patch or release and no response.
>>>
>>> So it's more about people wanting their rainbow pooing unicorns.
>>> Unrealistic expectations, polarised framing, denial, and consequent
>>> unwillingness to be involved.
>>>
>>>> [...]
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