Deployment Platform/Declaration of purpose

What are you trying to do?

• The possibility to launch Base Software in heterogeneous software and hardware environments.
• Using Base Software, provide access to various Content (Sugar activities, artifacts created by Sugar activities, books, etc.) created within the Sugar community.
• Using Base Software, provide collaborative functionality to support Social activity around the Content.
• Instruments and workflows to adapt Content and Base Software to specific needs that Sugar Deployment might face, including extreme ones like off-line environments and restricting hardware.

How is it done today, and what are the limits of current practice?

• There is no system approach to provide the same Base software:
  • On different GNU/Linux distributions. That makes hard coordination, on Sugar Labs level, of any efforts related to Base software.
  • On Sugar Labs level, there are no LTS Sucrose releases. It makes hard coordination between Sugar deployments.
• Current ways to share Content is either too general or limited:
  • The Activity Library is needless centralized (by design of upstream project that Activity Library is based on) and, e.g., doesn't accept uploading experimental activities created by not original authors.
  • Activity Library is too restricted (by upstream design, it was created to handle Firefox plugins) in case of not trivial software, e.g., dependencies and binary based activities.
  • No services, like Activity Library, to share something different to activities.
• There is not centralized Sugar-way to support Social activity within the community:
  • There is a gap between developers and users in the field.
  • Existing social services either scattered or too technical.
• There is not system approach, on Sugar Labs level, to coordinate efforts within the Sugar deployments.

What's new in your approach and why do you think it will be successful?

• Open Build System for system approach to provide the same Base software:
  • The same code base is being built for all supported GNU/Linux distributions.
  • Among 6 months Sucrose releases, there will be supported LTS releases.
• Sugar Network for system approach to provide Content.
  • That will include Sugar activities, the Sweets will take care about treating dependencies and Open Build System will build binaries in automatic manner.
• Sugar Network for system approach to provide Social activity for the Content.
• Sugar Network is designed to fulfill deployment needs like:
  • Supporting environments with limited, or absent, access to the Internet;
  • Adapt Content to local needs.

Who cares?

• Individual users;
• Content creators and software developers;
• Existing and potential Sugar deployments.

If you're successful, what difference will it make?

• For individual users:
  • reliable way to start Sugar on all mainstream platforms;
  • environment to share content and activities which is well integrated to Sugar workflow.
• For content creators and software developers:
  • easy sharing, e.g., system will handle issues like dependencies and building from sources automatically.
• For existing and potential Sugar deployments:
  • sharing space that will be common to all participants (but it should support tuning content for local needs);
  • more effectively reusing deployment experience, it will be incarnate in solutions on community level to reuse in any deployment.