OLPC 8.1.1 Features
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This page is monitored by the OLPC team.
NOTE: The contents of this page are not set in stone, and are subject to change! This page is a draft in active flux ... |
The purpose of providing software for connected laptops is to make affordances for desirable human behaviors like
- reading, writing, computing, sharing
- reflecting, creating images and sounds,
- speaking, broadcasting, publishing
- searching, listing, following,
- configuring, modifying, and debugging
Some affordances provided by the OLPC 8.1.1 operating system and most collections of activities include the ability to:
- Connectivity
- associate with 802.11 b/g access points with or without WEP and WPA1 encryption.
- associate with other XO or Active-Antenna 802.11s meshes.
- Localized Text Entry
- keymaps are correct or are very close to correct for US/International, Amharic, Spanish, Portuguese, and Kreyól keyboards.
- Recording Audio and Video
- We've got a camera, a microphone input with optional voltage bias, and some speakers.
- Pippy, Record, and TamTam will be able to play and record sounds.
- Pippy and Record will be able to take photographs.
- Record will be able to record short videos.
- Measure will be able to measure signals with or without DC voltage bias.
- volume keys on the keyboard will adjust the speaker volume while Sugar is running.
- Multi-media Composition
- pictures can be composed with text in a system editor such as Write. (We actually expect Write to do a lot of other things.)
- fancier multimedia like video, audio, and programs can be manipulated in an environment like EToys.
- Interpreters for Standard Data Formats
- be able to display and edit DOC, ODT, JPEG, PNG, GIF, WAV, OGG, HTML, JS, some SWF, and several other less-well known formats.
- We expect NOT to be able to display restricted formats including MP3, MPEG, most AVI, RM, FLV, etc.
- Extensibility and Malleability of Software
- w/ internet: install new software via 'yum install' or 'rpm -U' via the internet. Data in /home should be PRESERVED.
- w/ internet: olpc-update to new versions of the operating system via the internet. Data in /home should be PRESERVED.
- w/ preparation: olpc-update to new versions of the operating system via USB. Data in /home should be PRESERVED.
- w/ preparation: reflash appropriately signed builds via USB. NO DATA should be preserved.
- access the root account via the virtual terminals or via the Terminal activity (if present.)
- access to the firmware "ok" prompt w/ developer key, requestable through Browse
- Real-time Synchronous (RS) Collaboration
- Reliability of current RS collaboration is conditioned in complicated ways on available network bandwidth, packet loss rates, connectivity scenario, and exact software protocol/implementation. See the Collaboration network testbed for details.
- Robustness
- Installing or removing activities should never change the ability of the system to run.
- In practice, bad things may happen if you run out of disk space or if you remove/modify the Journal or Terminal.
- Alternately, malicious code could circumvent the isolation framework separating activities from system software and user data.
- Power Conservation
-
- when the lids are closed, suspend in order to conserve power.
- resume from suspend in response to input such as key-presses, mouse motion, power-button presses, unicast network traffic addressed to the laptop, and several other stimuli.
- Peripherals
- store user data to and to retrieve user data from FAT16/VFAT formatted USB Mass Storage devices.
- We DO NOT expect to be able to store user data to or to retrieve user data from SD cards until #6532 is addressed.
- USB ethernet adapters, keyboards, and mice should function similarly to their normal function on other operating systems.
- login via serial consoles.
- We do not have strong expectations about the behavior of other peripherals.