Getting Started

About Sugar

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 upon which children learn with Sugar Activities. The platform provides mechanisms for collaboration, reflection, and exploration. Sugar Activities cover a broad range of applications: browsing, drawing, composing, writing, programming, etc.

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 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 Python and runs on a GNU/Linux Kernel, originally from the Fedora Project, and now from a variety of GNU/Linux distributions.

For an overview of the components composing a Sugar system see the Sugar System Stack.

Getting Sugar

Sugar on a Stick

Sugar on a Stick is the easiest way to get Sugar. The introductory page provides details of the process, which is also summarized below.

If you are a Windows user with no Linux experience, you'll find that creating a Sugar on a Stick is no more complicated than making a purchase on Ebay! Have a look at the Fedora program you will use: https://fedorahosted.org/liveusb-creator/

Hardware requirements

Before you download, you need to know if you can use the 64-bit version. If your computer says on the box or documentation that it is 64-bit, you may use the 64-bit download version of Sugar called "x86_64". If you have an Intel MacIntosh, you will need the 64-bit x86_64 version. I think it is safe to say that PCs above Pentium 2 (commenced production end 1995) and meeting the specification below can run the "i686" version.

Fedora developers report these minimum requirements for the current distribution, Fedora 17:

A 400 MHz or faster processor

At least 512 MB memory (RAM), 1 GB recommended for best performance.

Less memory also works, the XO-1 runs with 256 MB. Use the boot loader option nomemcheck to disable the minimum memory check if installing Sugar on a Stick Live CD/USB to a hard disk.[1]

You will need to ensure the computer you plan to use is capable of booting from USB.

On older machines, you will probably need to make a change in the BIOS (see your computer's hardware documentation). Change Boot Order, so that Boot from USB comes before Boot from Hard Drive. Many newer computers detect the USB device as a hard drive, see http://www.pendrivelinux.com/usb-bios-boot-options/

The recommended minimum size of your USB flash drive is 2 GB, although a 1 GB drive will also work.

Ready to Download

If you are happy you have covered the above, you are ready to install Sugar on a flash drive. Refer to Downloads.

Boot

If all has worked, you will shutdown your PC. With the newly written USB stick in a USB port, restart the PC. See Sugar on a Stick/Boot for extra background information.

Please Explore Sugar

and take it out into your community

There are two further pages in the Getting Started set.

Once you are able to launch Sugar, see Getting Started/Explore.

If you can take Sugar out into your school or community, see Getting Started/Presentation for ideas on how to demonstrate it to others.

I need more information

For help, see Find help.

See Supported systems.

The Sugar Labs wiki is a collaboration site for Sugar Labs teams, the Sugar on a Stick project alone comprises over 75 pages or sub-pages. For additional information, you might look at Sugar on a Stick/Project sitemap

There is an introductory overview of The Sugar Learning Platform at http://www.sugarlabs.org/. You can also reach this site from the navigation bar along the top of this page, by clicking the tab labeled "web" at the far left end.

Notice this set of pages also includes an overview sitemap.

Release notes

Release notes for Sugar 0.121 are available here.

Sugar platform release version cycle: | 0.82 | 0.84 | 0.86 | 0.88 | 0.90 | 0.92 | 0.94 | 0.96 | 0.98 | 0.100 | 0.102 | 0.104 | 0.106 | 0.108 | 0.110 | 0.112 |

Other resources

This project, Sugar Creation Kit provides Sugar resources on a DVD, useful where there is limited Internet access.

Part Two is the on-line version.

This can be used to customize your own Sugar Creation Kit DVD's contents:

How to make your own custom Sugar-Creation_Kit.iso file

ASLOxo is a DVD .iso full of activities in .xo form for drag drop install to Sugar.