The former president of software and content at One Laptop per Child has launched Sugar Labs in the wake of the project's decision to ship with Windows XP.

Walter Bender said that Sugar Labs Foundation is being established to further extend Sugar, the acclaimed open source software platform originally developed for the OLPC XO laptop.

Sugar Labs will focus on providing a software "ecosystem" that enhances learning on the XO laptop as well as other laptops distributed by other companies, such as the ASUS Eee PC.

The platform has already been bundled with the most recent release of the Ubuntu and Fedora GNU/Linux distributions.

"This is a very exciting time in the development of software for children's education," said Bender.

"In the first generation of the Sugar UI, the free and open source community has demonstrated an exceptional ability to create a platform that enables children to explore the world, share their discoveries and express themselves.

"As a separate foundation, we will be able to advance Sugar's development even further and make it available on multiple distributions and hardware platforms."

Bender said by being independent of any specific hardware platform, and by remaining dedicated to the principles of free and open source software, Sugar Labs ensures that others can develop diverse interfaces and applications from which governments and schools can choose.