If you have internet access and are using the internet or email on your XO, you should update your Balsa installation periodically, using the Synaptic icon from the Panel.

Click on the Panel icon and provide password when asked. Click on the "Mark All Upgrades" button on Synaptic's toolbar. Then click Apply to  perform the upgrade.

If you are running version 4.1.4 or later of Adapt It, there is an alternative view that makes AI's menus and toolbars show up better on the XO screen. To activate this XO view, do the following:

Update!
Balsa v 0.6 has been released, based on Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty. See instructions and download here: Latest version
This will be the final Balsa version that can run on the OLPC XO-1.0.

Instructions for installing Balsa (Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid, customised for language workers in remote parts of the world) have been moved. Find them under the "OLPC" menu item to the left, underneath the main Title, BALSA, on this page.

For help with any of the programs contained in Balsa, please see these pages

 Configuring programs included in Balsa

For help or questions about the XO computer, or the Balsa environment--

Update!

[19 August 2010] The new Balsa v0.6 works on most older netbooks, laptops and desktop computers as well as on the XO-1.0. See Latest version for details.

The next version of Balsa will work on most newer (2010) netbooks as well; but it will no longer support the OLPC XO-1.0. If interest develops in running Balsa on the next generation XO-1.5, we will look into this as well.

These short story books have been published in several languages of Bougainville/Buka, Papua New Guinea. They are in PDF format.