Linux for Children

I recently took possession of a pair of older PCs – the natural upshot of nagging ane's older relatives to go something a picayune more "postal service-Columbian" – and of course my first instinct is to refurbish one every bit a Linux PC for my nephew and niece, ages 7 and 5. My nephew, peculiarly, is computer-obsessed, and I figure that giving him a complete child-friendly, education-focused PC might encourage some more productive "play" than he gets using mom and dad'southward PC.

Kid-Friendly Linux Distributions

Believe it or not, there are several distributions of Linux intended for utilise by children equally young as 3 years erstwhile. Child-oriented Linux distros tend to have a simplified interface with large, "chunky", colorful icons and a specialized set of programs designed with kids in heed. Some of the better-known distributions aimed at children include:

• Carbohydrate, the operating system designed for the One Laptop Per Kid project. Sugar is a radical deviation from traditional desktops, with a stiff emphasis on didactics programming skills, but is very strongly geared towards classroom utilise. Although I'k pretty comfy using Linux, I'grand afraid Sugar might exist also different for me to help my nephew and niece make apply of information technology.
• Edubuntu is based on the popular Ubuntu distribution. Designed to exist easy to install and very Windows-similar in its functioning, Edubuntu would be my outset choice if I were using newer hardware. With its rich graphical interface, though, I worry that these years-old PCs, neither of which have graphic cards, volition lag running Edubuntu. And given kids' attending spans, I'k agape that would be a major barrier to getting them to use it.
• LinuxKidX uses a KDE-based desktop highly customized for children, and is based on the Slackware distro. The only drawback for me is that most of the back up material is in Portuguese (although the distro I linked to is in English), making it hard for me to be confident about my ability to help if there are whatsoever bug.
• Foresight for Kids is based on Foresight Linux, a distro distinguished past the use of the Conary package manager. Conary is intended to make updates and dependencies much easier to manage than other bundle managers – in English, it should be easier to install and update software.  On the other hand, finding software packaged for the Conary installer might be a challenge, though I look the most popular programs are being adjusted past the Foresight team.
• Qimo is some other organization based on Ubuntu, only designed to be used by a unmarried home user instead of in classroom instruction. The system requirements are adequately low, since information technology's designed to exist run on donated equipment which Qimo's parent organisation, QuinnCo, distributes to needy kids.

Given the low specs of the equipment I"grand working with, Qimo seems thought for me, just since well-nigh of these will run from either a Live CD or a USB memory key, there'south no reason non to download them all and give each a attempt to run into what you – and, more importantly, your kids – like best.

Linux Software for Kids

In addition to the child-friendly interface, all of the distributions above come up with an assortment of software that's either designed peculiarly for kids or has special appeal for kids. This includes specifically educational software intended to teach math, typing, fine art, or even computer programming; typical productivity applications like give-and-take processors and graphics programs; and, of course, games. Of course, Linux doesn't accept nearly the range of games that are bachelor for Windows PCs, but my thinking is, the games are good plenty for younger kids, and older kids will gravitate towards consoles (my blood brother and sister-in-law take a Wii).

Some of the software available for kids includes:

• GCompris, a set of over 100 educational games intended to teach everything from basic computer use to reading, art history, telling fourth dimension, and vector drawing.
• Childsplay is another collection of games, with an accent on retentivity skills.
• TuxPaint, an astonishing drawing program filled with fun audio effects and neat furnishings.
• EToys is a scripting environment, more or less. The thought is that kids solve problems past breaking them down into pieces, scripting them, and running their scripts – the same way programmers do. But the goal doesn't seem to be to teach programming but rather to provide an immersive learning environment in which kids acquire foundational thinking skills.
• SuperTux and Hugger-mugger Maryo are Super Mario clones, because kids love Super Mario. Y'all already know that.
• TomBoy, a wiki-like note-taking program.
• TuxTyping, a typing game intended to assistance develop bones typing skills.
• Kalzium is a guide to the periodic table and a database of information well-nigh chemistry and the elements. Great for older students.
• Atomix, a cool little game where kids build molecules out of atoms.
• Tux of Math Control is an arcade game that helps develop math skills.

Not all distros come up with all of these games, but they are piece of cake enough to install from the online repositories if your chosen distro doesn't come with one or more of them. Of grade, well-nigh distros too come with standard Linux programs like OpenOffice.org (an Office-like suite of productivity apps), AbiWord (a Discussion-like word processor), GIMP (a powerful image editor), Pidgin (a multi-account IM customer), and Firefox.

Linux is a complex operating organisation, but information technology's besides a highly customizable one – for kids, that means a system that tin can grow equally they do and a powerful learning environs. Of grade, children's computer employ should not be totally unsupervised – any kid can stumble beyond Web content that might be pretty uncomfortable for mom and dad to have to explicate – just kids should take a take a chance to explore the possibilities of today'southward engineering and go their hands dirty, similar kids practice. And worst-case scenario – your 6-year old borks the operating system and you re-install. Wouldn't you rather it was on the Edubuntu system, rather than on your mission-critical work PC? (Make sure you back up the /home directory regularly so yous don't lose all your kids' drawings, poems, stories, or whatever.)

Do yous know of other kid=friendly Linux distributions? Have you prepare a Linux PC for your kids? Are their other games or programs you'd recommend? Let u.s.a. know your experiences in the comments.

Update: Comic book writer Jeremiah Gray emailed me afterward this mail service came out to tell me well-nigh his series of Ubuntu-oriented Linux tutorials published in comic book format, Hackett and Bankwell. Y'all can order printed copies or download PDF versions fro free from the website, and each is heavily supplemented with links to related resource on the Web. And they're peachy reading, either! Looks like a great fashion to go kids (and even adults) up to speed with Linux.

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Source: https://www.lifehack.org/articles/featured/linux-for-children.html

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