Development Systems: Difference between revisions

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{{Developers}}
An application developer can do most of their work on any system, especially if they are using the [[OLPC Python Environment]]. However it is a good idea to do your testing on a system that is similar to the OLPC, i.e. low memory, battery powered, portable.
<< [[Developers/Setup#Almost an OLPC|Developer's Setup]]


An application developer can do most of their work on any system, especially if they are using the [[OLPC Python Environment]]. There are a number of low-power laptops or thin-clients being introduced into the market that are superficially similar to an OLPC-XO.
The [http://www.carrypad.com/journal/2007/01/pepper-software-demo-on-olpc-at-ces.html pepperpad 3 software] was recently ported to the BTest-1 hardware. If the Sugar software ran on the pepperpad, then regular people could help test new versions. It does look like it is as close to the Btest-1 as any product on the market. All it is missing is the touchpad, but it has a touch screen.


If you like, you could use one of these platforms for development, though as of 2007-12-15, we don't see any compelling reason to recommend doing so, unless your '''goal''' is to port the environment to the platform.


While this porting might be useful and meritorious, such porting is not considered a core goal of the project. At the moment we simply do not have the resources to support Sugar running on other platforms, so expending core development resources on porting to such platforms doesn't yet make sense.
Some possibilities are:


To be a reasonable port, you will likely need to form a sub-community which can commit to supporting the port for use by large numbers of users. That will likely require commitments of commercial support from someone, somewhere.
* A number of [http://www.handhelds.org HP iPAQ's] run Linux; it is an ARM based PDA, along with the:

* Sharp [[Zaurus]] is a PDA running Linux. Several model look like mini laptops.
Examples of Low Power Laptops:
* [[PepperPad]] is a Linux-based tablet device. The 3rd model in the range has adopted the AMD GEODE CPU however that is less relevant for Python applications.

* A German company sells the [http://www.barebone-online.de/product_info.php/products_id/478 Flepo Mini PC1] which runs exactly the same CPU as the OLPC.
* [[Intel Classmate]]
* [http://www.ntavo.com/ntaterminal.php NTAVO Thin Client terminals] run Linux. The [[PuppyLinux]] folks have ported their low memory system to it.
* [[Asus EEEpc]]
* [http://www.ndiyo.org/systems Ndiyo Nivo] is a "ultra-thin-client hardware" - not a laptop, but another idea on cost reduction (maybe a "thin" OLPC along such lines could of interest in future iterations?)
* [http://www.carrypad.com/journal/2007/01/pepper-software-demo-on-olpc-at-ces.html PepperPad]

Thin Clients:

* Koolu
* [http://www.barebone-online.de/product_info.php/products_id/478 Flepo Mini PC1] (2012: all urls return: Bad Request (Invalid Hostname)
* [http://www.ntavo.com/ntaterminal.php NTAVO Thin Client] ([[PuppyLinux]])
* [http://www.ndiyo.org/systems Ndiyo Nivo]

Further afield:

* [http://www.handhelds.org HP iPAQ's] (2012:The site should be active on the week of Dec 1st, 2012!)
* Sharp [[Zaurus]]


[[Category:Developers]]
[[Category:Developers]]
[[Category:Competing projects]]

Latest revision as of 16:48, 10 May 2012

<< Developer's Setup

An application developer can do most of their work on any system, especially if they are using the OLPC Python Environment. There are a number of low-power laptops or thin-clients being introduced into the market that are superficially similar to an OLPC-XO.

If you like, you could use one of these platforms for development, though as of 2007-12-15, we don't see any compelling reason to recommend doing so, unless your goal is to port the environment to the platform.

While this porting might be useful and meritorious, such porting is not considered a core goal of the project. At the moment we simply do not have the resources to support Sugar running on other platforms, so expending core development resources on porting to such platforms doesn't yet make sense.

To be a reasonable port, you will likely need to form a sub-community which can commit to supporting the port for use by large numbers of users. That will likely require commitments of commercial support from someone, somewhere.

Examples of Low Power Laptops:

Thin Clients:

Further afield:

  • HP iPAQ's (2012:The site should be active on the week of Dec 1st, 2012!)
  • Sharp Zaurus