OLPC Fork Sugar On a Stick Goes 1.0

Marten writes "It was more than a year ago that Walter Bender left OLPC and started SugarLabs.org. Now, the first version of the new project has been released. Sugar on a Stick is a USB drive that runs on Mac and PC-style hardware. 'The open-source education software developed for the "$100 laptop" can now be loaded onto a $5 USB stick to give aging PCs and Macs a new interface and custom educational software.' Bender said, 'What we are doing is taking a bunch of old machines that barely run Windows 2000, and turning them into something interesting and useful for essentially zero cost. It becomes a whole new computer running off the USB key; we can breathe new life into millions of decrepit old machines.'"

Comments

Re:Does he really think schools are going to do it

[Darkness404]

Its not that the OS won't be used (already people use Linux in just about everything, from their phones, to routers to their TiVo), but rather the fact that the UI is terrible. Even with GNOME or KDE you can learn them and figure out any OS from there, if you use Windows KDE and GNOME (especially the way some distros configure them) will be easy for you to grasp. OS X is a bit different, but you can generally figure out other DEs after using OS X. So really, they are learning an interface which reminds me of a dumbed-down version of any generic smartphone which kids won't see the UI any place else in their life.