I am
proud to announce the availability of Sugar on a Stick v.3, code-named Mirabelle. More information about Sugar on a
Stick, including download and installation details, is available at http://spins.fedoraproject.org/soas/.
Changes in Sugar on a Stick since the
last release (v.2 Blueberry):
Sugar version 0.88. The most recent release of the Sugar
Learning Platform features support for 3G connections, increased
accessibility, and better integration with our Activity Portal (http://activities.sugarlabs.org) allowing students and teachers to
update their sticks with additional Activities. More information about
the 0.88 release of Sugar is available at http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/0.88/Notes.
Customize your own remix of
Sugar on a Stick.
You'll notice that v.3 Mirabelle has a smaller Activity selection than
its predecessors, Blueberry and Strawberry. We realized we'll never be
able to create an Activity selection suitable for all deployments -
instead, we've chosen to include and support a core set of basic,
teacher-tested Activities in the default image, and invite deployments
to use this as a base on which to build a customized Activity selection
for their classrooms. Instructions on how to do this are available at http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/docs/customization-guide/.
Sugar on a Stick is now a Fedora
Spin. After two
prior releases of being based on the Fedora distribution, Sugar on a
Stick has recognized by the Fedora Project as an official Spin. This
ties us more closely to Fedora's release cycle and gives us resources
from their engineering and marketing teams, which extends the reach of
Sugar on a Stick and makes the project itself more sustainable. In
exchange, users of Fedora have access to an easily deployable implementation of the Sugar
Platform; it's a great example of a mutually
beneficial upstream -
downstream relationship.
The biggest
difference in v.3 of Sugar on a Stick has been in its release processes
and engineering sustainability; it's now much easier
for new contributors to get involved. We continue to move towards our
long-term vision of bringing stability and deployability to Sugar's
personalized learning environment, and invite all interested parties to
join us.
If you'd like to contribute to the
next version, due for release in early November, join us at our
Contributors Portal at http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_on_a_Stick. All types of contributions are
welcome, from the technical to the pedagogical, and we're happy to teach
what we know and learn what you have to share.
I'd to thank especially Mel Chua and Peter Robinson who are greatly responsible for making this release as awesome as it is, as well as all people who were involved and contributed, like Tom Gilliard, who did large parts of the testing effort, but are otherwise too numerous to list here. Both the Sugar and Fedora communities did great work, represented in this product.
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I also learned that waking up three hours late (when having a talk scheduled in the morning) is probably not the best of all ideas -- probably unless you ask the cab driver. Got there in time, though and gave my talk on Leveraging Communities.
(picture by eNil taken from