[solved] Need simple fast stable OS for my daughter

nullified · 2015-03-04 04:30:40

Good decision! I recently made the same decision in regard to my wife's computer. Now I just have to make sure I don't annoy her too much by trying to configure and administer it...

x33a · 2015-03-04 06:20:52

nullified wrote:

Now I just have to make sure I don't annoy her too much by trying to configure and administer it...

Just use ssh for the administration part and she won't even know

nullified · 2015-03-04 06:30:50

x33a wrote:

Just use ssh for the administration part and she won't even know

Good point! I can't tell her I'm doing that though. She won't completely understand, but she definitely won't like the idea of me being able to be "on" her computer without being at her computer.

whoops · 2015-03-04 09:44:13

Just one afterthought because it seems to me you neglected this one:

An important catalyst for "learning to computer" is having an environment where breaking something (anything!) does not disencourage experimenting.

If you're really planning to use arch, you might need to think of some VERY very elaborate way to restore backups so that when your girl starts breaking that "handcrafted" OS - repeatedly and with growing enthusiasm - you can just smile, shrug and press a button instead of looking just a tiny bit more tired and annoyed and disapproving each and every time it happens. When it comes to "child-proofing" a PC, you have to ask yourself things like: "Is it REALLY absolutely impossible to open the raw BIOS in read/write mode with a hex editor or do I only think that because it doesn't make much sense to me to spend 10 hours stubbornly trying to do even that?"... And then, when your daughter tries to restore the backup on her own for the first time and the dd (or whatever) goes exactly the wrong direction... In my experience, it's sort of easy to get "too attached" to an archlinux installation. You know... because "I raised that desktop myself! It didn't even know how to find the graphics card when it was little...! *sniff* "

Something that is especially designed to run from a read-only device (with flash drives or hd's as optional storage for settings, upgrades, data, etc) might be better suited here. I haven't tested any Live-Distros for a while but the last time I checked, there were already a few pretty elaborate Distros around that used some sort of incremental disk image system - with an "indestructible" live DVD as a basis, that could either run a full blown DE all on its own or integrate multiple sort of "modular disk images / diffs" into its file system from hd or flash drive, where incremental changes to package upgrades, configurations, files could be saved, integrated, copied, restored, remastered as a new live DVD, etc. The one I tried was reasonably fast once I added a thumb drive, looked almost like a standard debian on the inside and it was very easy to copy / make backup of the "incremental disk images" that were used to store the user changes to the system. No problem where you can't just pop the DVD into another machine, add one of the thumb drives that "survived the most recent fire" and (sort of) everything is still there. So... this might be worth a thought.

Awebb · 2015-03-04 10:15:00

nullified wrote:

x33a wrote:
Just use ssh for the administration part and she won't even know
Good point! I can't tell her I'm doing that though. She won't completely understand, but she definitely won't like the idea of me being able to be "on" her computer without being at her computer.

As somebody with a background in pedagogics, I want to say, that it should be quite easy to sell this to her. I am a bit uncertain myself about giving a five years old her own computer. The education part of me says it's way too early, the computer person in my head says it's never too early. I do not envy you of your task as a guardian, who has to introduce a child to the dangers of technology without discouraging her to explore the world on her own terms. Make it about security. You can come to her room without her noticing and it requires a certain degree of trust on her side to assume you have no malicious intent whenever she is absent. The same applies to her computer.

Besides that, it is probably a good idea, to do all the admin stuff locally with her sitting next to you. I remember myself watching my uncle do his magic, not only did it spark my imagination, I also found it all very interesting. On occasion, you could fix something remotely and see, if she is rather fascinated than sceptical.

x33a · 2015-03-05 05:21:42

Awebb wrote:

nullified wrote:
Good point! I can't tell her I'm doing that though. She won't completely understand, but she definitely won't like the idea of me being able to be "on" her computer without being at her computer.
As somebody with a background in pedagogics, I want to say, that it should be quite easy to sell this to her. I am a bit uncertain myself about giving a five years old her own computer. The education part of me says it's way too early, the computer person in my head says it's never too early. I do not envy you of your task as a guardian, who has to introduce a child to the dangers of technology without discouraging her to explore the world on her own terms. Make it about security. You can come to her room without her noticing and it requires a certain degree of trust on her side to assume you have no malicious intent whenever she is absent. The same applies to her computer.
Besides that, it is probably a good idea, to do all the admin stuff locally with her sitting next to you. I remember myself watching my uncle do his magic, not only did it spark my imagination, I also found it all very interesting. On occasion, you could fix something remotely and see, if she is rather fascinated than sceptical.

All very true Awebb, but you are talking to the wrong guy. nullified was talking about his wife! Oh man, I can't stop laughing

nullified · 2015-03-05 05:33:31

x33a wrote:

All very true Awebb, but you are talking to the wrong guy. nullified was talking about his wife! Oh man, I can't stop laughing

Haha! I missed Awebb's reply earlier. I said that bit about her not letting me ssh in half in jest. It's not that she doesn't trust me, I swear!

HiImTye · 2015-03-05 06:58:50

drcouzelis wrote:

The reason I know this is because I refurbished an iMac G4 for my two year old daughter. By the time she was just about to turn three, she knew how to turn it on, play her music collection, watch videos, play the simple games I installed, use basic keyboard commands, and draw pictures using TuxPaint and the mouse. (I didn't even teach her how to do all of those things.)
When she was three (and after the iMac died), I set her up with an old laptop running Arch Linux (because that's what I know best). I gave her a nice Openbox configuration. She was able to play all her online Flash games, print, and watch her videos (just like your daughter wants to) without a problem.
She will learn to use whatever you give her.

so true. my daughter has used my PCs since she was 2. at the time, I had an account setup for her with Gnome-Shell, and she would open Firefox, click on the youtube bookmark and watch her favourite videos, or open GIMP and start drawing, or do whatever she wanted to. She knew how to use Gnome-Shell better than I did lol. now she just uses i3 since I installed Arch and I just let her use my account.

Last edited by HiImTye (2015-03-05 06:59:34)

Arch Linux

#26 2015-03-04 04:30:40

Re: [solved] Need simple fast stable OS for my daughter

#27 2015-03-04 06:20:52

Re: [solved] Need simple fast stable OS for my daughter

#28 2015-03-04 06:30:50

Re: [solved] Need simple fast stable OS for my daughter

#29 2015-03-04 09:44:13

Re: [solved] Need simple fast stable OS for my daughter

#30 2015-03-04 10:15:00

Re: [solved] Need simple fast stable OS for my daughter

#31 2015-03-05 05:21:42

Re: [solved] Need simple fast stable OS for my daughter

#32 2015-03-05 05:33:31

Re: [solved] Need simple fast stable OS for my daughter

#33 2015-03-05 06:58:50

Re: [solved] Need simple fast stable OS for my daughter

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