Everything about Sugar

Everything About Sugar.

This blog has everything you want to know about Sugar. This blog shows how to install Sugar on a stick, install it on a virtual machine, what can you do in Sugar, what kind of projects you can do with it etc....

So, What is Sugar on a Stick (SOAS)?

Sugar is a free and open source desktop environment designed with the goal of being used by children for interactive learning. Developed as part of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project, it is the default interface on OLPC XO-1 family of laptop computers, but also runs on most computers' hardware. It is available as a Live CD, as Live USB, a package installable through several Linux distributions, or on Windows and Mac OS through virtualization.

->Sugar on a Stick is a Fedora Spin LiveUsb operating system featuring the award-winning Sugar Learning Platform and designed to fit on an ordinary USB thumbdrive ("stick").

It will run on any recent x86-based computer that can boot from a USB stick (check the BIOS settings if it doesn't work straight away). This includes most Windows and Linux PCs and x86 Macs.

If you want to try Sugar, then you can try it by demoing on a stick. You can install Sugar on a stick.

The most recent and stable version of Sugar is version 21, release on 9th of December. 

You can download them here :

for x86_64(64-bit) and i686 (32-bit)

So, you may have a question on your mind that how to install Sugar on a flash-drive.

If you want to install Sugar on a flash drive on a flash-drive from Windows, follow the steps:

1.  First of all, you need LiveUSB creator, you can get it from here

2. Then install it. Just follow the steps.

3. After intall run it and you will get a screen like this :

4. Even though the USB Fedora creation process is straight forward, here is a quick run down of all the steps involved:

Select Sugar on a Stick from the Download Fedora drop down Set the Target Device to point to your USB flash drive. Move the Persistent Storage slider to set the capacity to use for storing changes(It is important to set Persistent Memory so that your work is saved between sessions.) . Click create Live USB to begin the creation process

All Done! You got Sugar On a Stick!

Install Sugar on a Virtual Machine.

1. You first need a virtual machine software like Oracle's VMWare,  or any similar app.

2. In this tutorial I am using VMWare Player. 

3. Now create a new virtual machine.

4. Now select the Sugar file downloaded, ( .iso or...)

5. Now select the guest operating system as "Other" and also version as "Other", then       press "Next", name the Virtual Machine.

6. Now, just simply press Next or select some quota, then press next. Then again, a windows will come for specifications of virtual machine, simply press Next because they are automatically generated.

7. After that, a new item on Home Screen Will come, with the name you gave for your virtual machine.

8. Select that item (here : I have XYZ) then press Play Virtual Machine, on the right side.

9. All Done...

Note: If you've downloaded an .ova file, then you need to directly run it, don't follow the steps. 

If you want to install Sugar from a MAC OSX then follow this video.

Now let I show you some features...

You can do many things with Sugar like...(down)

The Main Screen :

The main screen is the circle of all apps in Sugar. There are many apps to use. It looks like :

The Abacus :

Sugar gives you an abacus, for maths calculations...

Write :

If you want to write a note, or a document or else, you can use this thing.

Visual Match :

Visual Match is just a game,in which we have to visually match two pictures. This game is for children. It looks like this screenshot :

Typing Turtle :

It a game, which enhances our power of writing by different methods. It looks like :

Turtle blocks :

It is also a game. In which we have to connect two blocks. Child has to watch out which block attaches which one.

Stopwatch :

Stopwatch is just like a simple stopwatch, but has many timers which you can run at a time. You have three buttons on each times, they are Start/Stop, Zero and Mark.

Speak :

If a child wants to pronounce a word better, he just has to write the word on the text box down there, and it pronounces.

Record :

Record lets you capture pictures, video and audio and incorporate these media into other projects, such as Write and FotoToon, and to share them with others. You just need to press the round button in centre.

Read :

If you want to read a book, you can use this app. You can choose anything to read from your journal like books e.g. Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Mythology etc..

Pippy :

Pippy is a tool for writing sources of different coding languages like Python etc..

Physics :

This is a very good app. It makes all your Physics difficulties simple. You can draw shapes of different sizes and let them freely move in a plane. It has many basic shapes like circle, rectangle, triangle etc... You can draw shapes with a pen like tool.

Paint :

Draw anything freely with a pen, or select an shape to draw. Colour it. There are many shapes like mentioned above in Physics.

Moon :

Now about 'Moon'. It gives you every detail about moon like phases, julian date, age,

Lunation, Surface visibility, next full moon, next new moon, next lunar and solar eclipse etc...

Games :

It has many games like memorize, maze etc...

Labyrinth :

If you want to create a labyrinth with different branches, you can use this app. It is amazing app.  

Jukebox :

Jukebox allows you to play music. It plays media files like .mp3 etc.  

InfoSlicer :

InfoSlicer gets articles from Wikipedia. Gets information from German, French, Polish, Simple English, and Spanish Wiikipedia.

Image Viewer :

It is a simple app which allows you view images. It also allows you to zoom image, rotate image etc...

IRC :

Allows you to connect with Sugar Labs IRC channel for help.

Help :

Shows how to use Sugar. It is very basic.

Get Books :

You can get books from this app. You can get books like stories, fairy-tales, folk-tales, 

mythology,science books, most popular etc... You can read this books as mentioned earlier through Reader.

Finance :

You can manage your daily, weekly, monthly, yearly budget with Finance. Shows you your balance etc...

Countries : 

Shows a simple globe of Earth. Help students to learn different name of countries. 

Clock :

It is a simple clock with different modes like Analog, Digital. It also shows us time in words. Also shows us date. A feature allows us to grab it hand so we can easily change time.

Chat :

Allows us to chat with friends. First, we should connect with out friends, the we can start chatting with them.

Calculator :

This is advanced and simple calculator. It shows us All euations. Has function of trigonometry like sin, cosm cot etc...

Browser :

It is a tabbed browser. It allows you to  surf internet. It is much similar to other browsers.

Bugs :

So far, I couldn't find any bugs in Fedora 21. 

Conclusion :

Sugar is the best operating system for a child who is new to PC. 

Sugar on a Stick is without no doubt a five star operating system, as it delivers a powerful learning platform (Sugar) based on one of the most stable and reliable Linux kernel-based operating systems (Fedora). It is an incredible creative, fun learning tool for children!

Image sources : Me

Text sources : Information about Sugar (Wikipedia and Sugar Labs) and App details, install steps - Me 

Everything about Sugar by Hrishi Patel is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://thesugaractivity.blogspot.in/2014/12/everything-about-sugar.html.