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Sugar on a Stick/Pineapple (view source)
Revision as of 19:02, 11 October 2011
, 19:02, 11 October 2011Created page with "320px|right|a Sugar environment you can carry in your pocket!|link=http://alt.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/spins/linux/releases/15/Spins/ == Sugar..."
[[File:SugaronastickCoconut.png|320px|right|a Sugar environment you can carry in your pocket!|link=http://alt.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/spins/linux/releases/15/Spins/]]
== Sugar on a Stick - Pineapple ==
:''a Sugar environment you can carry in your pocket''
'''Pineapple''' will be the 6th version of '''[[Sugar on a Stick]]''' release expected in November 2011.
: [http://www.mail-archive.com/soas@lists.sugarlabs.org/msg02260.html News report] 09 October 2011
== Release announcement ==
<!-- We are proud to announce the availability of [[Sugar on a Stick]] v5 Coconut. More information about Sugar on a Stick, including download and installation details, will be available at http://spins.fedoraproject.org/soas/. -->
=== What's new in Pineapple ===
{|
|-
| style="border: 0; border-width: 0; width: 200px;" | [[File:Mirabelle-home-screen.png|200px|left|link=0.90/Notes]]
| style="border: 0; border-width: 0;" |
'''Sugar version 0.94.''' The most recent release of the Sugar Learning Platform features more activities with new toolbars and duplication features.
More information about the 0.94 release of Sugar is available at [[0.94/Notes]].
|}
{|
|-
| style="border: 0; border-width: 0;" |
'''Customize your own remix of Sugar on a Stick.''' Coconut has a slightly larger Activity selection than its predecessor Mango Lassi and has continued the trend of providing a few, better-tested Activities. We've realized that we'll never be able to create an Activity selection suitable for all deployments—instead, we've chosen to include and support a core set of basic, teacher-tested Activities in the default image, and invite deployments to use this as a base on which to build a customized Activity selection for their classrooms. See:
#[[Build Your Own Remix with Fedora]]
#[http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/docs/customization-guide customization guide]
#[[Sugar on a Stick/Sugar Clone]] A quick, but less pristine, method of build customization
#[http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sck/ASLOxo ASLO Activity Collection] DVD full of ASLO xo activities to Drag Drop into Soas Journal from DVD for Individual customizations.
| ]
|}
{|
|-
| style="border: 0; border-width: 0; width: 150px;" |<span class="linkgroup"></span>
| style="border: 0; border-width: 0;" |
'''Sugar on a Stick is a Fedora Spin.''' Since SoaS v3 Mirabelle, Sugar on a Stick has been recognized by the [http://fedoraproject.org Fedora Project] as an official [http://spins.fedoraproject.org Spin]. This ties us more closely to Fedora's release cycle and gives us resources from their engineering and marketing teams, which extends the reach of Sugar on a Stick and makes the project itself more sustainable. In exchange, users of Fedora have access to an easily deployable implementation of the Sugar Platform; it's a great example of a mutually beneficial upstream–downstream relationship.
|}
=== Contributing to Sugar on a Stick ===
With v6 of Sugar on a Stick, the team recognizes the need to continue to improve its release processes and engineering sustainability. New contributors are urged to get involved and help us move towards our long-term vision of bringing stability and deployability to Sugar's personalized learning environment.
If you'd like to contribute to the next version, due for release in November of 2011, join our [http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas mailing list] and visit '''[[Sugar on a Stick]]'''. All types of contributions are welcome, from the technical to the pedagogical, and we're happy to teach what we know and learn what you have to share.
Thank you to all the people involved for their awesome work!
== Release history ==
=== Introduction ===
This section is a recap of the events during the v5 Coconut release cycle of Sugar on a Stick.
* SoaS v5 is based on Fedora 15, and has been delayed. From the Fedora wiki,
*: "The move to NetworkManager 0.9 came after the feature freeze, and the Sugar desktop wasn't accounted for in the scramble to get alternate desktop environments working with it." [http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_15_Retrospective#Could_have_been_better]
=== Beta Release ===
:Download [[Sugar on a Stick/Beta | (Pineapple Beta)]]
<!-- '''25th May 2010''' - [http://fedoraproject.org Fedora] (and therefore [http://spins.fedoraproject.org Fedora Spin]) release cycle for Fedora 14 begins; this is significant since Fedora is one of our major upstreams. -->
=== Re-approved as a Fedora Spin ===
"[Spins are alternate versions of Fedora, tailored for various types of users via hand-picked application sets and other customizations." --from http://spins.fedoraproject.org/about
See the release notes for v3 and v4 for history on the transition to a Fedora Spin.
=== Feature process ===
* [[Features/Soas_V5/]]
<!-- The way features happen in Fedora is that early in the release process, developers propose features, and they are approved by a feature freeze date (which is before the alpha release). They have to meet certain criteria by certain deadlines - if they don't, they're dropped and not eligible for mention as features. Major features must be in and testable by Alpha; minor changes need to be in and testable by Beta, after Beta only bugfixes are allowed.
This feature process is not unique to Fedora. Feature processes are things that happen in basically every major FOSS project, and really in every major engineering project (even non-software) - it's how we systematically make sure we build something that's good and working.
The feature process also aids with marketing. The Marketing team in Fedora makes their plans according to the feature list that's set by Alpha - this lets us plan how to target those features early in the process.
Since SoaS relies on both Sugar and Fedora as upstreams, we rely on their feature processes - most SoaS features come from either Fedora features or Sugar features. (For reference, our main upstreams are Fedora, Sugar Labs (sugar-core), ASLO (Activities), GNOME, and Python.) For v5, we built the release using a lightweight feature process for SoaS that inherits from those two upstreams. -->
=== QA ===
:Much thanks to Peter Robinson who did a majority of the work to program, prepare and coordinate the work with many other sugar developers for this release.
:Thomas Gilliard did field-testing (building real SoaS sticks from .iso files and testing on those) - it's the closest thing to systematic testing we've had yet, though we still have a ways to go.
:Thank you also to James Cameron in Australia for his testing help!
:Much help was also provided by the team at #fedora-qa; freenode IRC
=== Documentation ===
<!-- We now have a [http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/docs/customization-guide/ Customization Guide] and [http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/docs/creation-kit/ Creation Kit] as official documentation on how to custom-build an image and burn a SoaS stick, respectively. -->
A new release of documentation should come out with each new release of SoaS (although resources have prevented this).
The Fedora-site documentation may not be an improvement over our Sugar Labs, ad hoc wiki documentation methods, as the tools needed to participate are more complicated, and the Spin page documentation is not open to editing. The Fedora Sugar on a Stick pages have not been edited since Mirabelle was released in May 2010. The attempt to better support a small number of known, working, "how to set up SoaS", instructions has not yet been fulfilled.
=== Major accomplishments this release cycle ===
* Expanded discussion with upstream Fedora especially Fedora QA team and the new AutoQA processes. Initial integration in the Fedora Desktop QA testing process with initial guidelines and test process created. This will be expanded in Fedora 15 for the SoaS v5 release.
== Press coverage ==
Feel free to add links to press coverage you find about Coconut to this section.
== Sugar on a Stick - Pineapple ==
:''a Sugar environment you can carry in your pocket''
'''Pineapple''' will be the 6th version of '''[[Sugar on a Stick]]''' release expected in November 2011.
: [http://www.mail-archive.com/soas@lists.sugarlabs.org/msg02260.html News report] 09 October 2011
== Release announcement ==
<!-- We are proud to announce the availability of [[Sugar on a Stick]] v5 Coconut. More information about Sugar on a Stick, including download and installation details, will be available at http://spins.fedoraproject.org/soas/. -->
=== What's new in Pineapple ===
{|
|-
| style="border: 0; border-width: 0; width: 200px;" | [[File:Mirabelle-home-screen.png|200px|left|link=0.90/Notes]]
| style="border: 0; border-width: 0;" |
'''Sugar version 0.94.''' The most recent release of the Sugar Learning Platform features more activities with new toolbars and duplication features.
More information about the 0.94 release of Sugar is available at [[0.94/Notes]].
|}
{|
|-
| style="border: 0; border-width: 0;" |
'''Customize your own remix of Sugar on a Stick.''' Coconut has a slightly larger Activity selection than its predecessor Mango Lassi and has continued the trend of providing a few, better-tested Activities. We've realized that we'll never be able to create an Activity selection suitable for all deployments—instead, we've chosen to include and support a core set of basic, teacher-tested Activities in the default image, and invite deployments to use this as a base on which to build a customized Activity selection for their classrooms. See:
#[[Build Your Own Remix with Fedora]]
#[http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/docs/customization-guide customization guide]
#[[Sugar on a Stick/Sugar Clone]] A quick, but less pristine, method of build customization
#[http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sck/ASLOxo ASLO Activity Collection] DVD full of ASLO xo activities to Drag Drop into Soas Journal from DVD for Individual customizations.
| ]
|}
{|
|-
| style="border: 0; border-width: 0; width: 150px;" |<span class="linkgroup"></span>
| style="border: 0; border-width: 0;" |
'''Sugar on a Stick is a Fedora Spin.''' Since SoaS v3 Mirabelle, Sugar on a Stick has been recognized by the [http://fedoraproject.org Fedora Project] as an official [http://spins.fedoraproject.org Spin]. This ties us more closely to Fedora's release cycle and gives us resources from their engineering and marketing teams, which extends the reach of Sugar on a Stick and makes the project itself more sustainable. In exchange, users of Fedora have access to an easily deployable implementation of the Sugar Platform; it's a great example of a mutually beneficial upstream–downstream relationship.
|}
=== Contributing to Sugar on a Stick ===
With v6 of Sugar on a Stick, the team recognizes the need to continue to improve its release processes and engineering sustainability. New contributors are urged to get involved and help us move towards our long-term vision of bringing stability and deployability to Sugar's personalized learning environment.
If you'd like to contribute to the next version, due for release in November of 2011, join our [http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas mailing list] and visit '''[[Sugar on a Stick]]'''. All types of contributions are welcome, from the technical to the pedagogical, and we're happy to teach what we know and learn what you have to share.
Thank you to all the people involved for their awesome work!
== Release history ==
=== Introduction ===
This section is a recap of the events during the v5 Coconut release cycle of Sugar on a Stick.
* SoaS v5 is based on Fedora 15, and has been delayed. From the Fedora wiki,
*: "The move to NetworkManager 0.9 came after the feature freeze, and the Sugar desktop wasn't accounted for in the scramble to get alternate desktop environments working with it." [http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_15_Retrospective#Could_have_been_better]
=== Beta Release ===
:Download [[Sugar on a Stick/Beta | (Pineapple Beta)]]
<!-- '''25th May 2010''' - [http://fedoraproject.org Fedora] (and therefore [http://spins.fedoraproject.org Fedora Spin]) release cycle for Fedora 14 begins; this is significant since Fedora is one of our major upstreams. -->
=== Re-approved as a Fedora Spin ===
"[Spins are alternate versions of Fedora, tailored for various types of users via hand-picked application sets and other customizations." --from http://spins.fedoraproject.org/about
See the release notes for v3 and v4 for history on the transition to a Fedora Spin.
=== Feature process ===
* [[Features/Soas_V5/]]
<!-- The way features happen in Fedora is that early in the release process, developers propose features, and they are approved by a feature freeze date (which is before the alpha release). They have to meet certain criteria by certain deadlines - if they don't, they're dropped and not eligible for mention as features. Major features must be in and testable by Alpha; minor changes need to be in and testable by Beta, after Beta only bugfixes are allowed.
This feature process is not unique to Fedora. Feature processes are things that happen in basically every major FOSS project, and really in every major engineering project (even non-software) - it's how we systematically make sure we build something that's good and working.
The feature process also aids with marketing. The Marketing team in Fedora makes their plans according to the feature list that's set by Alpha - this lets us plan how to target those features early in the process.
Since SoaS relies on both Sugar and Fedora as upstreams, we rely on their feature processes - most SoaS features come from either Fedora features or Sugar features. (For reference, our main upstreams are Fedora, Sugar Labs (sugar-core), ASLO (Activities), GNOME, and Python.) For v5, we built the release using a lightweight feature process for SoaS that inherits from those two upstreams. -->
=== QA ===
:Much thanks to Peter Robinson who did a majority of the work to program, prepare and coordinate the work with many other sugar developers for this release.
:Thomas Gilliard did field-testing (building real SoaS sticks from .iso files and testing on those) - it's the closest thing to systematic testing we've had yet, though we still have a ways to go.
:Thank you also to James Cameron in Australia for his testing help!
:Much help was also provided by the team at #fedora-qa; freenode IRC
=== Documentation ===
<!-- We now have a [http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/docs/customization-guide/ Customization Guide] and [http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/docs/creation-kit/ Creation Kit] as official documentation on how to custom-build an image and burn a SoaS stick, respectively. -->
A new release of documentation should come out with each new release of SoaS (although resources have prevented this).
The Fedora-site documentation may not be an improvement over our Sugar Labs, ad hoc wiki documentation methods, as the tools needed to participate are more complicated, and the Spin page documentation is not open to editing. The Fedora Sugar on a Stick pages have not been edited since Mirabelle was released in May 2010. The attempt to better support a small number of known, working, "how to set up SoaS", instructions has not yet been fulfilled.
=== Major accomplishments this release cycle ===
* Expanded discussion with upstream Fedora especially Fedora QA team and the new AutoQA processes. Initial integration in the Fedora Desktop QA testing process with initial guidelines and test process created. This will be expanded in Fedora 15 for the SoaS v5 release.
== Press coverage ==
Feel free to add links to press coverage you find about Coconut to this section.