[sugar] Sugar for the rich

[Mikus Grinbergs]

> The new Sucrose[1] 0.81.1 Development Release is out!

I was enthusiastic about the OLPC.  It offered to improve the lives 
of the economically disadvantaged through technology (i.e., by 
affordably providing computational assistance).  Sugar was part of 
that offer -- a "new look" at how persons lacking "developed world" 
exposure could still learn to make use of computational assistance. 
  I eagerly installed the latest builds on my XO, to see for myself 
how things (for instance, the redesigned Sugar UI) worked.

The project has matured;  to me it seems an "enclave" of developers 
has formed, with their own facilities and procedures.  Products will 
"trickle down" to places like Nepal as the "enclave" releases them.

For interested parties wanting to "follow" product evolution as it 
is being fashioned (or to try to install their own modifications), 
the minimum environment (for example, for looking at Sucrose) now 
seems to be a laptop (or bigger) with jhbuild installed.


While jhbuild facilitates the work of the "enclave", does its 
inclusion in the mainline development path act to inhibit 
"outsiders" (who may be from the economically disadvantaged group 
originally supported by the OLPC project) from contributing ?


mikus