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| == Sugar Digest == | | == Sugar Digest == |
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| 1. Bradley and Tony have ask us for a summary of Sugar Labs activity for the Software Freedom Conservancy annual report. It has been a busy year, with tremendous progress on the technical front, but also real inroads into better understanding of how to deploy Sugar in a wide variety of contexts.
| | Saw this quote by William Faulkner that I couldn't resist tampering with: "I believe that [an educated] man will not merely endure: he will prevail." |
|
| |
|
| ;GTK-3: The major technical effort over the past twelve months has been the transition to GNOME Toolkit 3. The developer team, lead by Simon Schampijer, has migrated Sugar to GTK-3 and, in the process, both made Sugar easier to maintain and also easier to support on devices such as the OLPC XO 4.0 Touch. This has been a community effort with contributions coming from engineers at OLPC, Activity Central, and the Sugar community at large.
| | 1. The ''New York Times'' ran a [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/01/technology/microsoft-sends-engineers-to-schools-to-encourage-the-next-generation.html?ref=business article] on the front page of its business section on Monday about a handful of Microsoft engineers who are tutoring high school students in Seattle in order to spark their interest in computer science and engineering. Nothing wrong with that, but it is certainly not a "man bites dog" story. How does it scale? And perhaps more important, does it really have impact when you only begin your intervention at high school? In contrast, [http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2012/09/06/why-estonia-has-started-teaching-its-first-graders-to-code/ Estonia has a national program in programming] that begins with first grade: “We want to change thinking that computers and programs are just things as they are. There is an opportunity to create something, and be a smart user of technology.” Not news "fit to print" in the ''Times'', but I'm betting the Estonia program will have real and lasting impact. |
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| |
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| ;Sugar Activities: Our "app store" continues to grow, thanks in large part to contributions from Sugar users who have made the transition to Sugar developers. More than 10% of our apps were written by children who grew up with Sugar. Meanwhile, we are approaching eight-million downloads.
| | 2. If my assertion is correct, then we need to ask how best to teach programming to children. Bert Freudenberg sent [http://worrydream.com/LearnableProgramming/ an article by Bret Victor] to the Sugar mailing list about "designing programming systems for understanding programming." Victor argues that "the goals of a programming system should be:" |
| | | * to support and encourage powerful ways of thinking" |
| ;The next generation of hackers: Not only are Sugar users becoming Sugar activity developers, they are also beginning to work on Sugar itself. A large part of the effort to migrate Sugar activities to GTK-3 has been accomplished by youths; and these same young hackers are submitting patches to the Sugar toolkit as well. They are full-fledge members of our community.
| | * to enable programmers to see and understand the execution of their programs" |
| | | He contrast this with the [http://www.khanacademy.org/cs tutorial approach] taken by the high-profile Kahn Academy. |
| ;Internationalization push: Chris Leonard has led an effort to recruit and assist translation teams so that Sugar has better coverage in the mother tongues and indigenous languages of our users. Over the past twelve months, we have seen substantive progress in the languages of:
| | While neither Etoys or Turtle Art currently support all of the affordances recommended by Victor, the vector is pointed in the right direction. |
| :* Oceania: Māori, Samoan (Gagana Sāmoa), Niuean (Vagahau Niue)
| |
| :* Central and South America: Huastec (Tének), Xi'úi (Central Pame), Aymara (Aru), Quechua (Cusco-Collao)
| |
| | |
| :These efforts have often included working with the local experts to establish glibc locales for their languages, which will facilitate further localization work on any Linux-based system.
| |
| | |
| ;Sugar in the USA: While the majority of Sugar users are in Latin America and Africa, we are starting to make in roads into the United States. Programs like the ones led by Gerald Ardito have demonstrated the efficacy of Sugar within the US educational market. Larger-scale efforts by OLPC in Miami and Charlotte are driving growth.
| |
| | |
| ;Teacher communities: Teachers are forming communities around Sugar to provide mutual support and to drive further pedagogical developments. They are using social media tools to form communities in which teachers and developers discuss problems and opportunities. Amazonas, Australia, et al. are leading the way.
| |
| | |
| ;Local initiatives: We have backed down from our formal "local labs" initiative, but not from working locally. There are strong local support teams in Uruguay, Argentina, Peru, etc., working on extending Sugar to support local needs.
| |
| | |
| ;Sugar on a Stick: There have been more than 500,000 visits to the Sugar on a Stick page (a version of Sugar that will run on any x86-based computer that can boot from a USB stick).
| |
| | |
| ;GNU/Linux distributions: Thomas Gilliard compiled a list of distributions that have seen significant advances in the past year.
| |
| :* [[Sugar Network]] (Aleksey Lim et al.)
| |
| :: Fedora-14 based OLPC OS for XO laptops (i586)
| |
| :: Ubuntu-10.04 and derivatives (i586, x86_64)
| |
| :: Ubuntu-11.10 and derivatives (i586, x86_64)
| |
| :: Ubuntu-11.04 and derivatives (i586, x86_64)
| |
| :: Ubuntu-10.10 and derivatives (i586, x86_64)
| |
| :* [http://devel.trisquel.info/dagda/iso/ Trisquel] 5.0 and 5.5 (Ruben Rodríguez)
| |
| :* [[OpenSUSE#openSUSE_12.2-sugar_0.96.2|openSUSE-EDU]] (Jigish Gohil and Dram Wang)
| |
| :* [[Sugar_Creation_Kit/sck/Advanced_Topics#ARM|ARM]] (Peter Robinson)
| |
| :* [http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/stage/18-Alpha-RC3/ Fedora 18]
| |
| :* [[Mageia]]
| |
| | |
| ;Community outreach: Sugar Labs provided support for several developer gatherings, including Sugar Camps in Lima Peru, Cambridge Mass, San Francisco CA, Prague Czech Republic, and GUADEC.
| |
| | |
| 2. Isabelle Duston has created a database of images (http://www.art4apps.org/) that is intended to reduce the cost of creating educational apps in particular for literacy. Feel free to use these images in your Sugar activities and to contribute to the database. She is also launching an App Challenge (See www.educationappsforall.org); Sugar activities qualify.
| |
| | |
| 3. Edgar Quispe has finished 100% of Aymara for Fructose, a major step in supporting local languages in Peru. Quechua is also making rapid progress.
| |
|
| |
|
| === In the community === | | === In the community === |
|
| |
|
| 4. There are plans to hold the next OLPC SF summit in San Francisco the weekend of October 19-21. We are holding a Sugar Camp ''following'' the summit (Oct 22-24). Please register at [http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugarcamp_SF_2012].
| | 3. There are plans to hold the next [[Sugarcamp_SF_2012|OLPC SF summit]] in San Francisco the weekend of October 19-21. We are holding a Sugar Camp ''following'' the summit (Oct 22-24). |
|
| |
|
| === Tech Talk === | | === Tech Talk === |
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| |
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| 5. Simon Schampijer announced the "I am a GTK+ 3 shell" release of Sugar and the Sugar toolkit (See http://download.sugarlabs.org/sources/sucrose/glucose/sugar/sugar-0.97.3.tar.bz2).
| | 4. I have an [http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XO_4_B1 OLPC XO 4.0 beta machine]. What fun. |
| | |
| 6. Daniel Drake announced that a new 13.1.0 development build is available (This one comes with the first development release of the GTK-3 port of Sugar and probably a fair number of bugs for you to help us find and solve.) See http://wiki.laptop.org/go/13.1.0
| |
| | |
| 7. Thomas Gilliard reports at there is a new live CD of Sugar on openSUSE available that incorporates 0.96.2, the current "stable" version of Sugar. ([[OpenSUSE#openSUSE_12.2-sugar_0.96.2]], [http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/dramwang:/images-unstable/images/iso/sugar.i686-0.3.0-Build1.2.iso iso])
| |
|
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| === Sugar Labs === | | === Sugar Labs === |
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| Visit our [http://planet.sugarlabs.org planet] for more updates about Sugar and Sugar deployments. | | Visit our [http://planet.sugarlabs.org planet] for more updates about Sugar and Sugar deployments. |
|
| |
| === Personal Note ===
| |
|
| |
| On Monday, September 10, I became a grandfather. Looking forward to some Turtle Blocks fun with Theo Max in a few years.
| |
|
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| [[Image:TheoMax.jpg|300px]]
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|
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|
| == Community News archive == | | == Community News archive == |
What's new
This page is updated each week (usually on Monday morning) with notes from the Sugar Labs community. (The digest is also sent to the community-news at sugarlabs.org list, blogged at walterbender.org, and archived here.) If you would like to contribute, please send email to walter at sugarlabs.org by the weekend. (Also visit planet.sugarlabs.org.)
Sugar Digest
Saw this quote by William Faulkner that I couldn't resist tampering with: "I believe that [an educated] man will not merely endure: he will prevail."
1. The New York Times ran a article on the front page of its business section on Monday about a handful of Microsoft engineers who are tutoring high school students in Seattle in order to spark their interest in computer science and engineering. Nothing wrong with that, but it is certainly not a "man bites dog" story. How does it scale? And perhaps more important, does it really have impact when you only begin your intervention at high school? In contrast, Estonia has a national program in programming that begins with first grade: “We want to change thinking that computers and programs are just things as they are. There is an opportunity to create something, and be a smart user of technology.” Not news "fit to print" in the Times, but I'm betting the Estonia program will have real and lasting impact.
2. If my assertion is correct, then we need to ask how best to teach programming to children. Bert Freudenberg sent an article by Bret Victor to the Sugar mailing list about "designing programming systems for understanding programming." Victor argues that "the goals of a programming system should be:"
- to support and encourage powerful ways of thinking"
- to enable programmers to see and understand the execution of their programs"
He contrast this with the tutorial approach taken by the high-profile Kahn Academy.
While neither Etoys or Turtle Art currently support all of the affordances recommended by Victor, the vector is pointed in the right direction.
3. There are plans to hold the next OLPC SF summit in San Francisco the weekend of October 19-21. We are holding a Sugar Camp following the summit (Oct 22-24).
Tech Talk
4. I have an OLPC XO 4.0 beta machine. What fun.
Sugar Labs
Visit our planet for more updates about Sugar and Sugar deployments.
An archive of this digest is available.
Planet
The Sugar Labs Planet is found here.
Sugar in the news
| 07 Sep 2012 |
NDTV – One Laptop Per Child initiative a hit in rural India
|
| 08 Jul 2012 |
Estado de S. Paulo – Para educar
|
| 24 Apr 2012 |
Pacific Standard – OLPC Redux
|
| 12 Apr 2012 |
Huffington Post – Hult Global Case Challenge: One Laptop Per Child
|
| 30 Mar 2012 |
newswise – “Sugar on a Stick” Helps Kids Learn How to Learn
|
| 11 Jan 2012 |
Boston Herald – One Laptop Per Child screening $100 tablet
|
| 10 Jan 2012 |
ars technica – Crank, bicycle, and waterwheel: hands-on with the OLPC XO 3.0 tablet
|
| 08 Jan 2012 |
The Verge – OLPC XO 3.0 tablet preview: impressions, video, and pictures
|
| 07 Jan 2012 |
The Verge – OLPC XO 3.0 tablet: an 8-inch tablet for $100, with Android and Sugar options for the children
|
| 23 Dec 2011 |
Miller-McCune – One Laptop Per Child Redux
|
| 18 Oct 2011 |
BDU – Robotics in Uruguay (video)
|
| 11 Aug 2011 |
Berlin.de – Gewinner des Berliner Landeswettbewerbs zu Open Source stehen fest
|
| 25 Jul 2011 |
CCC Classic – Garmin-sugarlabs development cycling team at Crit starting line
|
| 25 Jul 2011 |
CCC Classic – Garmin-sugarlabs development cycling team after Crit
|
| 13 Apr 2011 |
framablog – L'expérience Sugar Labs préfigure-t-elle une révolution éducative du XXIe siècle?
|
| 05 Apr 2011 |
Businesswire – The Government of Peru Expands the One Laptop Per Child Program with Local Manufacturing
|
| 31 Jan 2011 |
Sundance – A Day in the Life – Peru
|
| 01 Dec 2010 |
velonation – Sugar Labs to back Garmin-Cervelo’s development team in unique arrangement
|
| 28 Oct 2010 |
UCR – Nuevas tecnologías deben estar al alcance de todos los niños y niñas
|
| 05 Oct 2010 |
xconomy – One Ecosystem per Child
|
| 08 Sep 2010 |
FLOSS Weekly – Sugar Labs
|
| 09 Aug 2010 |
ABC digital – Indicadores constatan el impacto positivo en el aprendizaje de niños
|
| 23 Jun 2010 |
ABC digital – Xo para todas las escuelas de Caacupé
|
| 21 Jun 2010 |
La Nacion – “Buscamos que los niños no solo usen softwares, sino que puedan crear uno”
|
| 20 Jun 2010 |
UltimaHora.com – La laptop une a padres, alumnos y docentes
|
| 15 Jun 2010 |
The H – OLPC XO-1.5 software updated
|
| 10 Jun 2010 |
engadget – Sugar on a Stick hits 3.0, teaches us about a new kind of fruit
|
| 27 May 2010 |
Pro Linux DE – Sugar on a Stick v3 freigegeben (German)
|
| 27 May 2010 |
NY Times – One Laptop Per Child Project Works With Marvell to Produce a $100 Tablet
|
| 27 May 2010 |
PC World – OLPC Rules out Windows for XO-3
|
| 03 May 2010 |
WXXI: Mixed Media – Interview with Walter Bender (audio)
|
| 03 May 2010 |
Linux Magazine – OLPC Computers for Palestinian Refugee Children
|
| 14 Apr 2010 |
National Science Foundation – XO Laptops Inspire Learning In Birmingham, Alabama (video)
|
| 02 Apr 2010 |
|
| 15 Mar 2010 |
nbc13.com – Birmingham City students opt to spend spring break in class, XO computer camps (video)
|
| 18 Feb 2010 |
LWN – Karma targets easier creation of educational software
|
| 05 Feb 2010 |
iprofesional – La PC barata de Negroponte desembarca en la Argentina para pelear contra Intel
|
| 14 Jan 2010 |
AALF – Open Systems for Broader Change
|
| 03 Jan 2010 |
Educacion 2.0 – PLAN CEIBAL, El Libro
|
| 14 Dec 2009 |
xconomy – Sugar gets sweeter
|
| 10 Dec 2009 |
ars technica – Sugar software environment gets sweeter with version 2
|
| 09 Dec 2009 |
Wired – New Sugar on a Stick Brings Much Needed Improvements
|
| 08 Dec 2009 |
engadget – Sugar on a Stick OS goes to 2.0, gets Blueberry coating and creamy Fedora 12 center (video)
|
| 07 Dec 2009 |
Teleread.org – Sugar on a Stick: What it means for e-books and education
|
| 27 Nov 2009 |
CNET Japan – 「コードを見せて、もっと良くなるよ」と言える子どもが生まれる--Sugar Labsが描く未来
|
| 16 Nov 2009 |
zanichelli – software libero a scuola
|
| 12 Nov 2009 |
opensuse.org – openSUSE 11.2 Released
|
| 07 Nov 2009 |
My Broadband News – Mandriva 2010 packs a punch [and Sugar]
|
| 06 Nov 2009 |
GhanaWeb – Open education and an IT-enabled economic growth in Ghana: Musings of a dutiful citizen
|
| 26 Oct 2009 |
Linux Magazine ES – Software Libre como apoyo al aprendizaje
|
| 09 Oct 2009 |
interdisciplines – OLPC and Sugar: mobility through the community
|
| 08 Oct 2009 |
IBM developerWorks – 10 important Linux developments everyone should know about
|
| 01 Oct 2009 |
OLPC France – Interview Walter Bender au SugarCamp
|
| 25 Sep 2009 |
The Inquirer – One Laptop per Child marches on
|
| 18 Sep 2009 |
Groklaw – The Role of Free Software in Education
|
| 18 Sep 2009 |
Reuters – Sugar Labs and Free Software Foundation Celebrate Software Freedom Day
|
| 17 Sep 2009 |
ICTDev.org – Dream Again with One Laptop per Child
|
| 26 Aug 2009 |
Latinux – Azúcar en una memoria USB
|
| 03 Aug 2009 |
Wired: Geek Dad – Inventing a New Paradigm: SugarLabs and the Sugar UI
|
| 30 Jul 2009 |
Zanichelli – Sugar on a Stick: imparare insieme
|
| 23 Jul 2009 |
Everything USB – RecycleUSB.com - Donate your Flash Drives for a Good Cause
|
| 22 Jul 2009 |
OLPC France – Sugar : mauvaise presse et mise au point
|
| 13 Jul 2009 |
Spiegel Online – Das zuckersüße Leichtbau-Linux
|
| 07 Jul 2009 |
ComputerWorldUK – Gran Canaria Desktop Summit: a Study in Contrasts
|
| 06 Jul 2009 |
Windows Forest – USBメモリなどから“OLPC”用のOSを利用できる「Sugar on a Stick」が無償公開
|
| 02 Jul 2009 |
Howard County Library – Sugar on a Stick
|
| 27 Jun 2009 |
Deutschlandfunk – Süßes für die Kleinen: Sugar ist Linux speziell für Kinder (in Deutsch)
|
| 26 Jun 2009 |
EduTech – Sugar on a stick, and other delectables (praise for the lowly USB drive)
|
| 26 Jun 2009 |
ars technica – Sugar on a Stick brings sweet taste of Linux to classrooms
|
| 24 Jun 2009 |
BBC – OLPC software to power aging PCs
|
| 24 Jun 2009 |
Technology Review – $100 Laptop Becomes a $5 PC
|
| 15 Jun 2009 |
TechSavvyKids – Episode 10 FOSSVT: Sugar on a Stick (audio)
|
| 10 Jun 2009 |
LWN.net – Sugar moves from the shadow of OLPC
|
| 27 May 2009 |
LWN.net – Activities and the move to context-oriented desktops (subscriber link)
|
| 27 May 2009 |
Business Wire – Dailymotion Launches Support for Open Video Formats and Video HTML Tag
|
| 01 May 2009 |
Guysoft – Nokia N810 Running OLPC Sugar
|
| 29 Apr 2009 |
El Mercurio – Así se vivió la fiesta del software libre
|
| 27 Apr 2009 |
ostatic – Sugar on a Stick: Good for Kids' Minds (and School Budgets)
|
| 25 Apr 2009 |
Free Software Magazine – The Bittersweet Facts about OLPC and Sugar
|
| 24 Apr 2009 |
ars technica – First taste: Sugar on a Stick learning platform
|
| 22 Apr 2009 |
Betanews – Beta of Live USB Sugar OS opens
|
| 27 Mar 2009 |
Mass High Tech – Google promotes summer open-source internships
|
| 18 Mar 2009 |
Metropolis – A Good Argument
|
| 16 Mar 2009 |
Laptop Magazine – Sugar Labs’ New Version of Sugar Learning Platform Is Netbook and PC Ready
|
| 16 Mar 2009 |
Market Watch – Sugar Labs Nonprofit Announces New Version of Sugar Learning Platform for Children, Runs on Netbooks and PCs
|
| 14 Feb 2009 |
OLPC Learning Club – DC – Learning Learning on a Stick
|
| 05 Feb 2009 |
xconomy – Sugar Beyond the XO Laptop: Walter Bender on OLPC, Sucrose 0.84, and “Sugar on a Stick”
|
| 26 Jan 2009 |
Linus Magazine – Sugar Defies OLPC Cutbacks
|
| 19 Jan 2009 |
Feeding the Penguins – The status of Sugar, post-OLPC
|
| 16 Jan 2009 |
OLPC News – Sugar on Acer Aspire One & Thin Client via LTSP
|
| 12 Jan 2009 |
Bill Kerr – thoughts about olpc cutbacks
|
| 07 Jan 2009 |
ars technica – OLPC downsizes half of its staff, cuts Sugar development
|
| 06 Jan 2009 |
OLPC News – An Inside Look at how Microsoft got XP on the XO
|
| 30 Dec 2008 |
OLPC News – Sugar Labs Status at Six Months
|
| 22 Dec 2008 |
The GNOME Project – Sugar Labs, the nonprofit behind the OLPC software, is joining the GNOME Foundation
|
| 16 Dec 2008 |
Feeding the Penguins – Sugar git repository change
|
| 14 Dec 2008 |
NPR – Laptop Deal Links Rural Peru To Opportunity, Risk (Part 2)
|
| 13 Dec 2008 |
NPR – Laptops May Change The Way Rural Peru Learns (Part 1)
|
| 09 Dec 2008 |
SFC – Sugar Labs joins Conservancy
|
| 31 Oct 2008 |
Linux Devices – An OLPC dilemma: Linux or Windows?
|
| 10 Oct 2008 |
Feeding the Penguin – Sugar on Ubuntu
|
| 21 Sep 2008 |
Groklaw – Interview with Walter Bender of Sugar Labs
|
| 17 Sep 2008 |
Bill Kerr – Sugar Labs
|
| 16 Sep 2008 |
Open Source – Sugar everywhere
|
| 28 Aug 2008 |
OLPC News – An answer to Walter Bender's question 22
|
| 20 Aug 2008 |
OLPC News – Sugarize it: Intel Classmate 2
|
| 08 Aug 2008 |
Investor's Business Daily – 'Learning' Vs. Laptop Was Issue
|
| 06 Aug 2008 |
OLPC News – Twenty-three Questions on Technology and Education
|
| 18 Jul 2008 |
Bill Kerr – evaluating Sugar in the developed world
|
| 28 Jun 2008 |
OLPC News – A Cutting Edge Sugar User Interface Demo
|
| 18 Jun 2008 |
PC World – OLPC Spin-off Developing UI for Intel's Classmate PC
|
| 17 Jun 2008 |
Datamation – If Business Succeeds with GNU/Linux, Why Not OLPC?
|
| 11 Jun 2008 |
LinuxInsider – The Sweetness of Collaborative Learning
|
| 06 Jun 2008 |
Bill Kerr – untangling Free, Sugar, and Constructionism
|
| 06 Jun 2008 |
Open Education – Walter Bender Discusses Sugar Labs Foundation
|
| 06 Jun 2008 |
BusinessWeek – OLPC: The Educational Philosophy Controversy
|
| 05 Jun 2008 |
Code Culture – The Distraction Machine
|
| 05 Jun 2008 |
BusinessWeek – OLPC: The Open-Source Controversy
|
| 27 May 2008 |
The New York Times – Why Walter Bender Left One Laptop Per Child
|
| 26 May 2008 |
ars technica – OLPC software maker splits from X0 hardware, goes solo
|
| 22 May 2008 |
BetaNews – Linux start-up Sugar Labs in informal talks with four laptop makers
|
| 16 May 2008 |
OSTATIC – OLPC's Open Source Sugar Platform Aims for New Hardware
|
| 16 May 2008 |
PCWorld – Bender Forms Group to Promote OLPC's Sugar UI
|
| 16 May 2008 |
MHT – Bender jumps from OLPC, founds Sugar Labs
|
| 16 May 2008 |
News.com – Sugar Labs will make OLPC interface available for Eee PC, others
|
| 16 May 2008 |
Feeding the Peguins – The future of Sugar
|
| 16 May 2008 |
Sugar list – A few thoughts on SugarLabs
|
| 16 May 2008 |
xconomy – Bender Creates Sugar Labs—New Foundation to Adapt OLPC’s Laptop Interface for Other Machines
|
| 16 May 2008 |
BBC – '$100 laptop' platform moves on
|
| 15 May 2008 |
OLPC wiki – Dual-boot XO Claim: OLPC will not work to port Sugar to Windows.
|
| 16 May 2008 |
Softpedia – Bender Launches Sugar Labs for Better Development of OLPC's Sugar UI
|
Press releases
See our Press Page
