Image source: Laptop.org (OLPC)

An article in MIT’s Technology Review reports on a surprising new use for One Laptop Per Child’s user interface, Sugar. From the article:

The open-source education software developed for the “$100 laptop” can now be loaded onto a $5 USB stick to run aging PCs and Macs with a new interface and custom educational software.

“What we are doing is taking a bunch of old machines that barely run Windows 2000, and turning them into something interesting and useful for essentially zero cost,” says Walter Bender […] “It becomes a whole new computer running off the USB key; we can breathe new life into millions of decrepit old machines.”

Nicholas Negroponte, who has given many TEDTalks, says “Putting Sugar on a stick is absolutely the right thing to do.”