[Sugar-devel] Future of Rainbow + Sugar?

[Gary C Martin]

On 24 Feb 2009, at 17:52, Wade Brainerd wrote:

> On Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 12:41 PM, Benjamin M. Schwartz <bmschwar at fas.harvard.edu 
> > wrote:
> They are a single, indivisible cause, and also the entire reason for  
> the
> existence of Sugar.
>
> Many operating systems provide users with a set of powerful tools for
> manipulating ideas and data.  Sugar's purpose is to add another  
> dimension:
> to encourage users to modify and share the tools themselves.  To  
> that end,
> if my friend sends me a modified copy of an activity, I must be able  
> to
> run it without fear of wrecking my system.
>
> On the contrary, learning to develop software is almost impossible  
> without wrecking your system once or twice.
>
> Backups are the correct solution to this problem, not some crazy  
> security system.  When all you have is a hammer, everything looks  
> like a nail.

I do very much agree about back-ups (Martin's and others school-server  
back-up work is in invaluable here), but the promise of Rainbow is not  
just about limiting the possibilities for how a system could get  
accidently/maliciously wrecked. For instance, how do you like the idea  
of 'a friend' silently harvesting all the Journal photos your kid has  
taken via a compromised/modified activity**?

**actually Pippy and the slideshow example really creeps me out for  
just that reason – remind me, Pippy's getting special case hack  
permission to drive a 8 line highway through Rainbow security  
permissions, right?

I know Rainbow, as currently implemented, is lacking in certain areas  
– but Rainbow is providing something I think is valuable, that's not  
available elsewhere, and in a manor appropriate for the non-specialist  
target audience.

--Gary

P.S. Maybe I'm just paranoid; v.happy to be corrected.

> -Wade
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