Sugar

When XO boots up, the display features four views called Home, Friends, Neighborhood and Activity. A simple menu bar at the top of the screen helps the child navigate the interface, which includes a simple Web browser and networking program. Learning aids, child-friendly chat rooms and multi-user activities are available. The software is designed to be easy to use but also to scale in complexity as the user's skill level increases. For example, in some programs, a child can view and change code to customize applications.

See a video demonstration of the Sugar interface.

Opinions are divided on how successful Sugar is. A Business Week article ('Meet Sugar') calls the interface revolutionary: "Sugar represents the first complete rethinking of the PC user interface in more than 30 years." The article continues: "Ever since the Apple (AAPL ) Macintosh was launched in 1984, PCs have been designed with the office desktop as the visual metaphor. Sugar tosses out all of that. Instead, it puts an icon representing the individual at the center of the screen, then zooms out like a telephoto lens first to show the user in relation to friends and then to all of the people in the village who are connected via a Wi-Fi network."

On 90 Percent of Everything, Harry Brignull is less enthusiastic. Brignull feels that the interface may not have had enough input from the target demographic, that skills learned through Sugar may not be transferable to a more traditional interface and that the development concepts may be patronizing: "I can't help thinking that the Sugar UI talks down to the users. It seems to be saying 'You aren't ever going to be able to cope with the computers we use in the west, so here, have this special one with cut down features!'"

Learn more about Notebooks and Laptops

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More resources from around the web: - The OLPC Project provides more information about the $100 laptop. - China Martens describes the basics of the Sugar interface. - Greg DeKoenigsberg provides a functional overview of Sugar. - IBM describes OLPC Project hardware and software.

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