And so that returns to OLPC. Despite being a piece of junk ultimately, OLPC's machines gave students access to a fully-featured computer, loaded with physics sims, visual programming languages, traditional programming languages, and mesh networking.
I think the DE/software package, Sugar, still exists. It's part of Fedora and is now mostly referred to as "Sugar on a Stick", so basically a live OS that kids can bring to their local library or schools to have fun and experiment. One of the most interesting things about Sugar to me is the way it re-visualizes what a computer looks like for children and the networking that children's computers do. Check out the "my neighborhood" application that visualizes the mesh network of all of the machines connected together using Sugar, where all of the avatars representing users are 'playing' together in digital space.
bad electronics doer, 19 y/o.
I'm obsessed with radio, old 'net culture, and fun things to do on-line!