Sugar Labs

Sugar on a Stick

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What is Sugar on a Stick?

 
 Sugar on a Stick is a Fedora-based Live USB operating system featuring the award-winning Sugar Learning Platform and designed to fit on an ordinary USB thumbdrive ("stick"). Learn more about the project and the principles behind it at our Spin webpage. The most recent version is version 3, code-named Mirabelle and was released on May 25, 2010.

Turn your computer into a Sugar on a Stick Creation Station: A related project is the Sugar Creation Kit, a downloadable DVD which includes the materials you need to create Mirabelle sticks and install additional Activities on it, along with documentation and previous versions of Sugar on a Stick.


Want to use Sugar on a Stick?

 
 
If you'd like to try out Sugar on a Stick, check out the Sugar on a Stick Spin Page - it's where our software downloads, installation and usage instructions, and support information lives.

After you've tried out Sugar on a Stick, we hope you'll come back here and join our community of contributors to help us make the next release even better.

Want to contribute to Sugar on a Stick?

 

You're in the right place! This page is a contributors portal to the project, and contains everything you need to get started in becoming part of the Sugar on a Stick community.

New contributors start here!

Welcome! We're excited that you want to help us bring the Sugar Learning Platform to children around the world. No prior experience with computers or educational technology is required - in fact, we actively encourage a diversity of backgrounds, ages, and perspectives. See the Joining Sugar on a Stick page for instructions on how to get started. You may also want to check out the Sugar on a Stick project page on OpenHatch, or attend one of our Sugar on a Stick meetings.

What can you do?

There are three main ways you can contribute to the Sugar on a Stick community. We work closely with our upstreams, Sugar Labs and the Fedora Project.

Get Activities on the Stick

We're always looking for help with all aspects of the Sugar on a Stick release process. Here are a few things you can do:

 
 
 

Get Sticks into Schools

 

Deployments all over the world need many different types of help as they work through the Sugar on a Stick deployment process - we need help building resources for all deployments to use, supporting those deployments, and helping new deployments start, as well as gathering stories and feedback from deployments so that we can make the next version of Sugar on a Stick even better.

Some things you can do to help:

  • "It's a wiki: Edit away!" is often said in open source communities. Almost nothing is set in stone and can't be undone. So if you've got ideas how to make instructions clearer and more accessible, just go for it!
  • We produce official documentation such as the Creation Kit or the Customization Guide. If you've an idea how to make them better, why don't you jump in and create a patch? Creating these nifty text files is simple - instructions live in the Documentation SOP.
  • Unofficial documentation for unsupported workarounds for installation and customization need to be edited, tested, and submitted for approval for official support. Check them out and leave comments and improvements; just jump in and edit the page.
  • Interested in starting a deployment or helping a specific one (with anything from pedagogical design to technical support to funding logistics)? Introduce yourself on the deployment lists for Sugar Labs and One Laptop Per Child and we'll get you connected with some teachers on the ground.
  • We're looking for some people to help us assemble tools for our support team to use. Email the Sugar on a Stick mailing list if you're interested.

Get Contributors

Contributors are the lifeblood of the Sugar on a Stick community - we work hard to bring a playful mindset of teaching, learning, and meaningful work to the children we aim to reach, and we aim to keep that mindset in our own work and community as well. Welcoming and teaching new contributors or all types, building the resources they need, and teaching them how to empower others in their turn is one of the most important things you can do; it is everyone's responsibility to help build our community, one person at a time.

Some things you can do:

 

What's happening?

Meetings

We have weekly meetings on IRC - see Sugar on a Stick meetings for more information, including logs from past meetings. Attending a meeting is a great way for newcomers to get started.

Release schedule

Our release schedule is based on the Fedora release schedule. The most recent release was v.3, code-named Mirabelle, shipped on May 25, 2010 and based on the Fedora 13 release schedule. The next Sugar on a Stick version will be based on the Fedora 14 release schedule.

2010-05-25 Sugar on a Stick v.3.0 Mirabelle released
Planning & Development Begins
2010-07-27 Feature Freeze (all features have to be approved and in a satisfying state.)
2010-08-03 Alpha Change deadline (all changes will have to be pushed by this time. pending submissions are insufficient.)
2010-08-17 Alpha Release
2010-09-07 Beta Change deadline (all changes will have to be pushed by this time. pending submissions are insufficient.)
2010-09-21 Beta Release
2010-10-12 Final Freeze (all changes have to be pushed. no further changes permitted.)
2010-10-14 Compose Release Candidate
2010-10-26 Sugar on a Stick v.4.0 Final Release

Contributor stories

To find out what other contributors are doing, check out Planet Sugar Labs, where contributors to Sugar Labs and the Sugar on a Stick project aggregate their blogs. You can also add your own blog to the Planet.

Related work

While the projects listed below are not part of Sugar on a Stick, we watch them closely and try to work with them when possible (or at least we're trying to learn!)

  • Introduction to Mirabelle
  • SugarCreationKit DVD - Complete DVD containing all the resources required to create all 3 versions of Sugar-on-a-Stick without requiring Internet access
  • Other portable Sugar distributions - Live USB work based on other Linux distributions.
  • The undiscoverable is an unofficial FAQ for tips, tricks, and solutions to common problems that may otherwise be tricky to find. These are being considered for inclusion in the official SoaS documentation.

Previous versions and subpage index

Earlier versions of Sugar on a Stick can be reviewed at these pages:
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