The Extraordinary full featured Operating System for the One Laptop Per Child XO Laptop Computer. For adults who may not find the child focused graphical interface called Sugar practical for daily use, Xtra Ordinary allows your XO to behave in a more familiar way. Using the Xtra Ordinary Operating System should be quite easy for anyone who has ever used Microsoft Windows, MAC OS, or any Linux/BSD/Solaris operating system with KDE, Gnome, LXDE, Xfce, or other menu driven window manager....thus making it extremely "Ordinary", while being extraordinary full featured at the same time. The Xtra Ordinary Operating System comes pre-installed on an SD Card which fits into the card slot on the bottom side of the display monitor. Just insert the SD card and turn on the XO Laptop (after unlocking with a developer key). Just turn on the XO laptop with the SD card removed to use it's normal system.

Xtra Ordinary Options - Xtra ordinary 2010 - Xtra Ordinary 2009 - Xtra Ordinary 2010 Upgrade from 2009 Helpful Information - Xtra Ordinary Homepage - Xtra Ordinary 2010 Screenshots

 

Xtra Ordinary 2009 contains the following features:

• Startup time (aka boot time) is less than 1 minute.
• No login required, it boots directly to the desktop as shown above.
• Color scheme blends with the look of the XO laptop.
• Single user environment where passwords are not required. This is done using a paswordless super user option for various system tools, as well as maintaining normal file system permissions, to maintain a level of system security. This behavior can be changed by editing the /etc/sudoers file. Although passwords are not necessary, if you change the sudoers file you will need to begin using them, and will also want to change them. The initial root and olpc user passwords are both changeme, for obvious reasons.
• Ability to add and remove virtually thousands of software packages using the included package manger (synaptic). Adding additional software is not like purchasing apps for an iPhone, there is no cost for the additional available software.
• The TrueCrypt application allows creating encrypted file storage.
• Ability to use the following screen resolutions: 1200x900 (default), 1024x768, 800x600, 640x480, 640x400, 640x384, 512x384, 400x300, and 320x240.
• Wireless network connection manager. Just click the icon on the task bar and select what wireless network you want to connect to. Tested to work with open connections including hot-spots, WPA, WPA2 (with pre-authentication and without it), WEP using 64 and 128 bit hex keys.
• Communicating: Skype, and Ekiga are included and can be used with the on-board speakers, microphone, and webcam, however headphones are highly recommended, and using the webcam can interfere with the ability t use audio communications (because of limited memory and CPU speed) . An all-in-one instant Messenger (Pidgin) is also included which allows chatting through nearly all popular instant messenger services..
• Battery Monitor. Tested with a battery life of 3 hours 15 minutes at normal screen brightness (1/2 as high as it can go). Due to variations from one battery to the next it's safe to say that most XOs running Xtra Ordinary OS should get anywhere from two to three hours of continuous use before needing to recharge.
• Support for Bluetooth. A Linux compatible USB bluetooth adapter is required.
• Display brightness is adjustable using the XO keyboard keys.
• Other Software: Unbranded Firefox browser (Iceweasel) with auto-zoom extension for easier website viewing. Other applications include: unbranded Thunderbird (icedove) email client, OpenOffice.org full office suite (version 3.1.0), Cheese (webcam), PDF Viewer, Gtkam (for connecting digital cameras), GIMP graphics editor, Exaile music player, Pontamus (siple and fast music player), Movie Player, AbiWord (fast word processor), Iceowl Calendar (also integrated into the email client), and more.

Xtra Ordinary is a complete install on an SD card. It is not a "Live" version thus far less memory is required to run the system. this leaves more resources for running applications. A swap file is also used which has helped prevent the system from locking up when memory is exhusted.

The Xtra Ordinary Operating System is available on a variety of sizes of Secure Digital (SD) cards. We use only the fastest category (class 6 SDHC) cards.  The smallest we offer is a 4GB, which still has around 1.7GB of free space remaining.

 

Shipping Information:
Flash Drives,  SD Cards, and CF Cards are ordered from distribution weekly, and normally ship from On-Disk.com in 1-7 days.

The Xtra Ordinary Operating System is designed as a optional add-on for the One laptop Per Child XO laptop computer. It comes pre-installed on an SD Card which fits into the card slot on the bottom side of the display monitor. Just insert the SD card and turn on the XO Laptop (after unlocking with a developer key).

Xtra Ordinary 2009 is built on top of updated Debian GNU/Linux 5.0.2, with some elements taken from the "testing" branch, the LXDE project, with information and some software provided by the OLPC wiki (most notably the initial base system from which we started, the kernel and basic passwordless concept).

As shipped, only the Debian lenny (stable) contrib, non-free, main, security updates, and Debian multimedia repositories are active. Testing, proposed updates, and lenny volatile are included, but are disabled. The disabled repositories can be enabled in synaptic, however do this ONLY at your own risk.

An unlocked XO Laptop from the One Laptop Per Child project with build 802 or later.  To unlock see: after unlocking with a developer key.

You can upgrade your firmware and  the XO operating system to OS version version 8.2.1 using this flash drive, or by following this information on upgrading to a newer build: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Upgrading_firmware

First, see the Technical Support Page

Debian User Forum:http://forums.debian.net/
LinuxQuestions.org:http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/
Debian Help:http://www.debianhelp.org/
LinuxForums.org:http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/debian-linux-help/

 

The Xtra Ordinary Operating System uses LXDE (Lightweight Linux Desktop Environment), LXDE help can be found at:

LXDE Help Forum:  http://forum.lxde.org/
LXDE Online Chat (browser based IRC client):http://www.lxde.org/irc