'$100 laptop' platform moves on

y Jonathan Fildes

Science and technology reporter, BBC News



Sugar labs logo

The group has been set up as a not-for-profit venture



An independent effort to develop the software originally designed for the $100 laptop has been launched.



Sugar Labs will take the laptop's innovative interface, known as Sugar, to the "next level of usability and utility", according to its founders.



It is intended that the free software will be made available on other PCs, such as the popular Asus Eee.



The launch comes after the announcement that the group behind the $100 laptop has joined forces with Microsoft.



The deal means that One Laptop per Child (OLPC) will now offer the low cost laptops with Windows XP, as well as an open source alternative.



It will also continue to offer the Sugar educational interface that the new foundation intends to continue to develop.



"We will continue to work with OLPC but we will also work with other manufacturers," explained Sugar Labs founder Walter Bender.



"Hopefully it will mean that these ideas will get out there faster and to a broader community."



Divergent views



Until recently Mr Bender was second in command and the person who had been responsible for software and content on the XO, as the $100 laptop is known. He resigned in April.





XO laptop running windows



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"I didn't leave OLPC because of the Microsoft deal - it was a symptom rather than the cause," he told BBC News.



"I left OLPC because I think the most important thing it is doing is defining a learning ecosystem."



He said that over time his own views on how best to bring education to children in the developing world had diverged from those held by OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte.



"One goal is to just maximise the number of laptops you get out to kids. And that is unequivocally Nicholas' goal."



But, he said, there was another approach.



"My approach is to demonstrate to the world a way to [deliver education] that is impactful and can scale but not be the one that necessarily does the delivering of the laptops.

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