Linux for Kids?


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So anyway, tomorrow I'm going to install Linux Mint on a PC for my sister and her 3 kids. I like mint because it's based on Ubuntu and has all of the drivers and codecs and proprietary stuff preinstalled - so minimum configuration. (I'm not so keen on the dark S&M theme though).

This PC will predominantly be used by kids - so I was kind of wondering if anyone knew of any artwork, wall papers, icon sets, themes, boot up screens and so on that might be attractive you young kids?

I'd be willing to look at anything, as I just want this system configured as quickly as possible so that I can forget it.

Thanks.

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Linux for kids?

Yes.

My kids all have no problems with running Linux. They selected either Yu-Gi-Oh wallpaper or Runescape backgrounds, and firefox has links to things like Club Penguin, CrazyMonkeyGames, Puzzle Pirates and stuff.

Standard Xubuntu (XFCE), but Ubuntu with Gnome looks nice and includes the eye-candy compiz stuff that is popular for effects these days.

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Thanks. Not really looking to compare distros at this point - as I'm certain Mint will be fine. Just artwork really.

I think you must have boys Mark? This machine is for 3 girls.

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Yeah, 3 boys.

Kids don't have an attachment to Windows over anything else. They just want something that works.

And, as a parent, letting them use Linux user account, you know they aren't going to get malware of any sort. I have a story about our youngest ending up with a stripper animation that would walk on the bottom of the screen do a little provocative swaying, then walk off. He was maybe 4 at the time. Yes, it was on Windows.

For wallpapers, I just did a Google image search for terms of things they liked, and there were lots of walls for them to pick from.

Create an account for them (individual accounts, if they are picky about their individual settings). Set it to log in automatically, and remove a lot of privileges for it. Leave a parent account to administer the box, and get all the goodies set up (proprietary video drivers, flash, java, games like frozen bubble, tuxracer, etc) then you just need to update the system periodically to ensure you aren't exposed to any un-patched vulnerabilities that have fixes released.

Heck, if you want, set it up to automatically download and apply the fixes, since it sounds like you will just drop the PC off with your sister.

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^ Precisely what I've done for my 2 boys (4 and 6)... and they love it (Ubuntu). They can use it as well as any Windows box out there. :D

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for wallpapers etc.. i would just ask em what they are into and install those.

I know for one thing when i have kids they will be using Mac OSX or Linux, there is no way i would allow them unsupervised on Windows, i used to have to clean up windows boxes and the amount of porn and crap that would end up on the computer is beyond belief. I agree with the above kids don't care about whats on the computer they just want something that works. Perhaps when they are older (14 + ) age group they might decide to use windows but for any under 10 i would advise anything but windows.

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for wallpapers etc.. i would just ask em what they are into and install those.

I know for one thing when i have kids they will be using Mac OSX or Linux, there is no way i would allow them unsupervised on Windows, i used to have to clean up windows boxes and the amount of porn and crap that would end up on the computer is beyond belief. I agree with the above kids don't care about whats on the computer they just want something that works. Perhaps when they are older (14 + ) age group they might decide to use windows but for any under 10 i would advise anything but windows.

The other side though is that teaching your kids to use Windows efficiently prepares them better in life. I learnt so much when I was younger just messing around in Windows that has been useful for me later on.

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The other side though is that teaching your kids to use Windows efficiently prepares them better in life. I learnt so much when I was younger just messing around in Windows that has been useful for me later on.

Seriously, what is a kid going to "learn" about Windows? Point-n-click?

Now, if they were trying to learn Excel VBA, then yes, I would agree that a Windows platform would be the choice to make.

But trying to say that a kid should play on a Windows PC because they need to learn Windows is outright silly. Heck, "Windows" will change plenty of times before they are an adult, and I am sure that they will get plenty of critical "Windows" exposure at school, so they won't be completely lost in that Windows interface.

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The other side though is that teaching your kids to use Windows efficiently prepares them better in life. I learnt so much when I was younger just messing around in Windows that has been useful for me later on.

I disagree completely. You don't learn anything special from using Windows... Real computer skills can be transferred to any platform. Teaching your children to use a free operating system actually gives them a lot more freedom for using a computer for the future because they won't be locked in to using Windows because of the non transferable "skills" they learn on there. And you can mess around with an OS like GNU/Linux A LOT more than you can with Windows. The entire OS is built from hacking after all.

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Meh. I don't think that a kid learns more from Linux, either. At that age, unless they are going to get into programming a specific non-"cross platform" language, or a specific app that runs on only one OS, it doesn't matter an ounce what the underlying OS is.

Mostly, it is all about the apps. Web apps are (or should be) platform neutral. Java and flash are good examples of this. But learning to use a spreadsheet or such isn't going to vary much between one platform and another. Someone who can create a basic spreadsheet and use it to make a graph of data in Windows can do the same thing on Linux with Gnumeric or OpenOffice, or vice versa.

Most of the time spent on a computer is working with apps, not the OS (unless you really like changing wallpaper, or which program is invoked when you double-click a .jpg file).

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I think the knowledge that there actually is more than just Windows is a huge bonus on its own so I think they will learn a lot more from using another OS.

Being able to use specific applications is another thing and to be honest I don't consider being able to use a WYSIWYG word processor or spreadsheet application an essential skill. I'd rather see more people actually learn when they should use typesetting and when they should just use plain text. I hate seeing people type up stuff in Word that doesn't actually need to be typeset. And knowing how to make a columned layout in Word isn't a skill imo, I have no clue how to do that but I bet I could still do it better than most people just by RTFM.

That's what I mean by transferable computer skills... you don't have to know how to do everything, just know how to find out how to what you need and I do believe a free OS encourages this line of thinking more than Windows.

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