Improve Sugar on a Stick

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The hard work of making a simple solution

Sugar on a Stick has tremendous potential. Kids love it, teachers see the possibilities.

To scale, we need to make it SIMPLE.

Inspiration

Amy Smith, "Do the hard work needed to find a simple solution. As Leonardo da Vinci said, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”—and it is the key to this type of design work."

Get inspired by the design process of her coal creation device: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqI63IEg3MM There is background in her TED talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/amy_smith_shares_simple_lifesaving_design.html

Where we need to simplify

1 Make it work to both boot and to run on the computers' current operating systems.

This is clearly possible, LinuxliveUSB has a this working for Windows.
  • We need a Mac and Linux VirtualBox or other VM Solution.
  • We need a simple, elegant, Sugar specific UI that is presented to the user when they insert a stick into a running Windows machine.
Suggestion: Put 2 files for virtualbox import/export on a 2nd USB stick
On insertion; the contents of the USB stick pop up
 An example:
 f16-live-RC4-Desktop-sugaruser-disk1.vmdk
 f16-live-RC4-Desktop-sugaruser.ovf <==click on this file and it immediately imports into VirtualBox (less than 2 Minutes) 
 (Only the .ovf file icon is highlighted in the USB stick contents)
This is OS agnostic for a system with an installed VirtualBox 4.1

2 Make it work with Macs.

  • It kinda works sometimes now. Some macs reboot if you do magic incantations. Some don't. A VirtualBox "boot helper" VM that started the boot in VirtualBox, then looks to the stick was created by Dave Bauer, but it doesn't work on all Macs yet.

3 XS integration needs to work simply and elegantly.

  • Backup and Restore
  • A simple UI for recreating a lost or broken stick
  • Give teachers the power of Moodle - We need tools for teachers to manage student work on the XS and to push files to students sticks.

4 Understand Stick failure and how to reduce it.

See Notes: Cautions with using Live USB devices, LiveOS image, & Stick Layout

5 Make it simple and elegant to create sticks for your whole class.

  • Not a lot of steps for drivers, etc., and it works on most of the computers in the kids' houses.
  • Teacher decides what files and activities are included
No command line usage, an enjoyable, Sugarish experience.
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