Talk:Sugar

Why can't it have a "normal" GUI like the images of the demo laptop have? How can they learn about the computer and the operating system when they can only browse the web and chat in a limited environment like this?

--Commodore

Actually they can't browse the web because most of them will have no Internet connections. Browsers today are used for much more than the web. They are e-document readers that allow people to read HTML and XML documents. They are application front ends that provide a GUI for distributed applications. The wireless mesh of the OLPC lends itself to distributed apps, for instance a library of ebooks where you choose a book and download it to your OLPC.

Ok but it didn't answer my question :) --Commodore

Fair enough. The point of the project is NOT to teach kids how to use a computer, but to use a computer as a tool for teaching kids. If all the OLPC did was function as an ebook reader for DRM content, it would still be able to meet that goal. Of course, the OLPC's innovative technical design lends itself to some innovative software design and production of some innovative educational content. There is nothing "normal" about the OLPC and that is also a goal of the project, i.e. to be better than what has come before.

Sugar is going to be one of several applications available on the laptop, "normal" GUI will be available --Marcin

Great Marcin! --Commodore

Sugar is not application but both a developer framework and a user environment. It will allow to easily write new applications for the OLPC (and to port existing ones). It will be easy to program and to expand by contributors and even by the kids.

--Marco Pesenti Gritti

Child Fotos in Chat

Do expect, that the children or the teacher have a digital camera to make these pictures? Will the digital camera be part of the "school package"?

 Thats just a mockup to give a more personal look. Digital cameras of course would not be available everywhere neither is it planned to be part of a school package atleast universally - RahulSundaram

Different distribution than Fedora Core

Actually, why not build the GUI interface based on some other versions of Linux? Anyway, Fedora Core is not designed for a Laptop with a 500 Mhz CPU. And we can find a lot of more suitable releases in the Linux Community, including many small, fast, user-friendly releases of Linux. Isn't it --Sil

A stock Fedora Core distribution will not be used on the final laptop. Redhat is an OLPC partner, and will basically making a $100 laptop distribution that is small, fast, and stable. User-friendliness of the distribution is irrelevant, since most children will be using the laptop through Sugar anyway. --SamatJain 12:31, 3 August 2006 (EDT)

Is any attention being paid to how the pretty green artwork will look on the high-res black and white screen mode? I understand that making the GUI as nice-looking as possible is not the focus of olpc, but I don't want to see all the green turn to low-contrast mush in the more usable screen mode.