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→About Sugar
== About Sugar ==
== About Sugar ==
Sugar is a different desktop environment to what is normally used in Microsoft Windows, Apple's OS X or other GNU/Linux operating systems. It is conceived as a tool to allow kids to learn interactively. One of the first things that a child sees, therefore, is not a hard disk or a trash can—it’s the other kids in the “neighborhood.” Programs and applications are called Activities, many of which allow for [[Collaboration|collaboration]] between learners who are connected to each other by [[wikipedia:Wi-Fi|Wi-Fi]] or through a [[olpc:Community Jabber Servers | Jabber network]]. Sugar developers are encouraged to write activities with collaborative elements that are automatically enabled.
Sugar is a desktop environment that is an alternative to the ones typically used in Microsoft Windows, Apple's OS X or other GNU/Linux operating systems. It is conceived as a platform that upon which children learning with Sugar [[Activities]]. The platform provides mechanisms for [[Collaboration|collaboration]], [[Activities/Portfolio|reflection]], and [[View Source|exploration]]. Sugar Activities cover a broad range of applications: browsing, drawing, composing, writing, programming, etc.
Sugar is developed in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Python_%28programming_language%29 Python] and runs on a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux GNU/Linux] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernel_%28computer_science%29 Kernel], originally from the [http://fedoraproject.org/ Fedora Project], and now from a [[Supported systems|variety]] of GNU/Linux distributions.
The Sugar desktop has multiple full-screen views: a Home view from which Activities are launched; a Neighborhood view where learners can connect to each other through a [[olpc:Community Jabber Servers | Jabber network]]; a Journal view, which can be used as a ''lab notebook''; and the Activity view, where Sugar Activities are run.
Sugar Activities have no Save menu: everything is saved automatically. While the interface uses very little text, additional information is revealed when the user hovers over icons.
Sugar is Free Software. It is developed in [[wikipedia:Python_%28programming_language%29|Python]] and runs on a [[wikipedia:Linux|GNU/Linux]] [[wikipedia:Kernel_%28computer_science%29|Kernel]], originally from the [http://fedoraproject.org/ Fedora Project], and now from a [[Supported systems|variety]] of GNU/Linux distributions.
For an overview of the components composing a Sugar system see the [[Sugar System Stack]].
For an overview of the components composing a Sugar system see the [[Sugar System Stack]].