Sugar OS is the custom Linux user interface designed for the OLPC XO Laptop. Sugar on a Stick is a project that lets you run Sugar from a USB flash drive, no XO laptop required. I first checked out Sugar on a Stick earlier this year, when it was still a bit rough around the edges. But at the Netbook World Summit in Paris today, Sugar Labs CEO Walter Bender introduces Sugar on a Stick version 2.0.

The new version is code-named Blueberry (which is a step up from the previous Strawberry release). It’s built on Fedora 12 and includes a few new tricks such as support for Flash. There’s also a new version of Open Office 4 Kids, which is a stripped down version of OpenOffice.org.It also includes improved wireless networking, easier keyboard configuration, and updated versions of the applications that were available on earlier versions.

You’ll need a 1GB or larger flash drive to use Sugar on a Stick. You can download the 589MB image from the Sugar OS wiki, which also has installation instructions.

Johannes from NewGadgets.de captured some video of the Sugar on a Stick 2.0 launch at the Netbook World Summit. You can watch it after the break.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a while since I first checked out Sugar on a Stick, a project that lets you install the OLPC XO Laptop’s operating system on a USB stick and run it from pretty much any netbook. It’s an interesting project, and the Sugar OS is full of educational goodies designed to teach kids with little prior computer experience how to communicate, work, and play on a laptop. But it’s not really that useful if you’re looking for an alternative to Windows, OS X, or a more traditional Linux desktop like Ubuntu.

Still, it’s certainly worth checking out if you’re interested in following the progress of the OLPC and Sugar projects. And today Sugar Labs released Sugar on a Stick 1.0, which can run on pretty much any PC and recent Macs with Intel processors. The operating system is designed for use in educational settings, and it’s set up to work with a school server that lets teachers distribute content, collect homework, or backup files from individual laptops.