Sugar, the novel Linux-based interface developed by One Laptop Per Child (OLTP), has been freed from the cute little "$100" green-and-white XO Ur-netbook invented to run it.

It can now be downloaded to a $5 1GB USB drive and run on any PC, netbook, or Mac, even some "antiques." It runs on x86 Macs with a helper CD and in Windows using virtualization.

The release, dubbed Sugar on a Stick, was created by Sugar Labs, formed last year when OLTP's number two guy Walter Bender broke with OLTP boss Nicholas Negroponte over making the next-generation XO into a dual boot machine running a special stripped-down version of Windows to make the XO more popular.

The initial Strawberry version of Sugar on a Stick, announced at LinuxTag in Berlin Wednesday, can be downloaded for free at www.sugarlabs.org/. It includes 40 programs such as Read, Write, Paint and Etoys. Other programs are also free and available on the site. Data from the programs can be saved.

Although OLTP hasn't been able to sell anywhere near the fantastic number of XOs it envisioned, the Sugar environment is reportedly now in the hands of over a million kids worldwide, who are encourage to learn through collaborating.

Sugar on a Stick was designed to work with a School Server that can provide content distribution, homework collection, backup services, Moodle course management integration, and filtered access to the Internet.

Sugar Labs said the Strawberry release is meant for classroom testing, intending that the feedback it gets will shape its v2 release due out toward the end of the year.

The company has gotten a $20,000 grant from the Gould Charitable Foundation to implement Sugar at the Gardner Pilot Academy, a public elementary school located in what it calls "one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse sections of Boston."

Strawberry offers offline access to applications and content since not every kid has Internet access at home.

Sugar on a Stick doesn't mess with a computer's hard drive - doesn't even need a machine with a hard drive - and Bender said it'll work with slower, older PCs and low-powered netbooks. It can reportedly even work on phones.

There's a version that's supposed to ship with the newer XO 1.5 laptops in the fall. It will not, however, be the new XO's primary interface.