[Sugar-devel] Vision

[Tony Anderson]

Call me a whiner.

I greatly appreciate your involvement in Sugar Labs. There is no need 
for you to
accommodate me.

Naturally, I would appreciate your considering that my time may not be 
best served
by learning how to make an image and installing it with an SD card on an 
XO-1 to help
you with testing.

Tony

On 04/21/2016 10:32 AM, James Cameron wrote:
> No, not at all.  There are plenty of ways to test a fix that do not
> involve images.  Images are the unicorn again.
>
> If your wish is that I disengage from Sugar Labs, so that someone more
> suited to your needs can be available, I'll do that, as it's probably
> about the right time.
>
> On Thu, Apr 21, 2016 at 10:10:45AM +0800, Tony Anderson wrote:
>> 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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