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Education

Linux for Tots? 23

Posted by Cliff from the toys-for-playtime dept.
ecliptik asks: "My mother works at a nursery school and she asked me to setup some old 486's that had been donated for the children. I figured this would be an excellent scenario for Linux since it wouldn't cost anything to set up. My dilemma is, how exactly should I accomplish this? Anyone have any suggestions for distros to use, maybe some open software that would be good for kids ages 4 to 7?"
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Linux for Tots? More

Linux for Tots?

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  • hehe... yup. Granted, it was 1985 and I was in elementary school and all they had were Apple IIe's at our school. I got good at making the turtle do neat tricks, like mapping out equations and simulating a working analog clock. Of course, the fact that I was teaching myself BASIC at home on my Commodore 64 may have had something to do with it, too.

  • hmmm (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    i'm curious as to what sort of advice you're looking for? surely the kids won't care if you have red hat vs. mandrake on the machines. and is there any serious educational software for linux? in my experience, it has all been for windows. let us know how it goes plz.
  • OK, this is just kids right-- aso your not worried about security or anything. Red aht is easy, its quick and its painless unless you're connected to the internet or a multi user workstation. I really don't think these kids are going ot be running nay buffer overflows or brute force attacks. Then, I'd install Gnome since it is a bit more pretty (IMHO) than KDE. Its my opionion, jsut stay away form slackware --- way to hard for kids learnign to read -- cant imagine them hand editing .conf files.
  • Install LOGO - Turtle Graphics.

    -- Eat your greens or I'll hit you!

  • This seems to be the kind of question my mom would ask "Can we put linux in the car? its running rough, i thought linux might be able to fix it. linux works for everything, right?"

    Seriously, what is wrong with Windows for children to use? These 486s probably already have an OS on them now. there are probably many abandonware programs available for it. My neice is only three years old and she knows how to use her mom's computer. She likes the Dragon Naturally Speaking software and the Magic school bus and Barney programs that are available for Windows. I'm not sure what programs would be available for linux that she would be interested in using. Maybe there are some platform independent websites that use Flash or Java that the kids could use to play games or for learning.

    I found DOS tough to use when i was 6 or 7 years old, but back then the computer booted right up into IBM Basic 1.0 and my dad taught me how to program basic. I would've been lost without that help... I could only see how 4-7 year olds would fair with an unsupervised Linux box.

  • Isn't this impossible? (Score:3)

    by Lover's Arrival, The ( 267435 ) on Sunday January 07, 2001 @03:08PM (#524571) Homepage
    Heh, I am all for Open Source software, but I think that the idea that it is useable for toddlers is a wee bit silly. Hardly anyone works in the free software community on childrens programs, that seems to be an area dominated by commercial companies. The software just doesn't exist in quantity!

    Also, Linux is hard enough for adults to use (like me), how can it be translated to children? I fear that this is just too premature for children.

    I would really like it if there were good childrens programs for linux though. But I'm afraid that Windows will be better in this way for some time to come. Thats just the plain & honest truth!

  • I completely agree with you, up to a point. I mean, there is a reason for sure that Apple has been selling millions to the educational market for years, and it's probably got a lot to do with an easy to use interface and a fair ammount of educational software.
    At the same time though, I think that children need to be exposed to something challenging and difficult at whatever level they're at.
    I'm not saying that they should all have homework on what type of files go in the /bin directory, I'm just saying that maybe a Windows machine and a Linux box could co-exist and even complement each other in a classroom. Or maybe I'm just wrong ;)
  • Stick a BBC Micro emulator on them for that retro 80s educational touch.
  • Linux being the advanced, easy to use piece of software that it is, I can't think of a better use for it. And, what's more, you'll introduce these kids to a concept they'll be able to carry with them allt hroughout their lives, 'RTFM'. Why, it may even motivate some of the little tykes to read. I whole-heartedly recommend Slackware as the distribution you should use because of the name. That and 'packages' are for sissies. apt-get is just another way of saying 'I don't like doing anything, please put me on the dolly and roll me down to McDonald's. But I digress.

    as for software, there's tons of stuff you can give the kiddies to play with. Like gcc. And emacs.

  • bah (Score:4)

    by nomadic ( 141991 ) <nomadicworld@@@gmail...com> on Sunday January 07, 2001 @06:20PM (#524575) Homepage
    What's with all these lazy kids today? Make them install it themselves. Then if they can't do it yell that you were donating linux kernel code when you were their age.
    --
  • Unfortunally, Linux can be difficuilt at times for any adverge person. On the other hand -- I mastered it in days. But... I think Linux is going a little too far for little kids. They really don't have "Educational" programs for Linux, like they do, Windows. I'm all for Linux, but in this case, I would have to say Windows would be the best bet. Good luck soldier. -Tyler
  • Oh get off it. No one is asking them to install software or admin the stinking boxen just to set down and work with some stuff. My 5 year old does very well on a Debian box thank you very much. He has been using a web browser since he was about ~3 and does very well with netscape for alot of the web content that is out there. As far as kids programs go check out the Debian Jr. stuff very cool most of it. Now it is not so much edutainment (Although the Arthur Titles seem to work well under Wine) as educational but still he loves the Letters and Numbers apps. I really don't understand what part of start up the program let them play with letters or whatever for awhile shut it down open a browser point them to www.pbskids.org let them play for a while. Go and do something else is so hard. Hell my 2 year old can do the freaking letters game. There is nothing hard about it. Now what parts of using Linux that would clearly be end user type stuff is hard?
  • Checkout the Debian sponsored project: www.linuxforkids.com [linuxforkids.com]
  • besides the fact that ecliptik is a weiner for wanting to put linux on a 486...hehe why is everyone saying linux is so hard to use? a computer is hard to use the first time, no matter what OS you are running. i remember DOS being a pain to use when i was 10. little kids learn fast and as long as eclip's mom knows how to use it, there shouldn't be a problem about linux being to hard eclip, have fun in rome this semester
  • Hey, I used to love playing with LOGO in elementary school. Even got to go to computer camp for free cuz I was good at it.

  • Favorites... (Score:3)

    by Spoing ( 152917 ) on Sunday January 07, 2001 @04:30PM (#524581) Homepage
    My nieces are in that age range, and they love certian games and could care less about others. Check with LinuxForKids [linuxforkids.com] to get started.

    There are quite a few sticker programs, a new 'paper doll' program (check Freshmeat.net), and some simple games that would work well. Favorites are Potato Guy in KDE 2.x, and a few of the puzzle games in Gnome.

    Any Java program should work as well, such as KidPad.

    Since you're talking 486s, you might want to look at a /. article a couple weeks ago on using 486s and other low-powered machines as X stations, with one beefier machine running the applications.

    Wine or a DOS emulator can be used in a pinch, though for this age range it's not necessary.

  • try debian for kids... (Score:3)

    by dfelznic ( 8812 ) <dfc.anize@org> on Sunday January 07, 2001 @09:15PM (#524582) Homepage
    Debian for children from 1 to 99

    This is an internal project to make Debian an OS that children of all ages will want to use. Our initial focus will be on producing something for children up to age 8. Once we have
    accomplished this, our next target age range is 7 to 12. By the time children reach their teens, they should be comfortable with using Debian without any special modifications.

    http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-jr/
  • LOGO scholarships? Dear god, what has the world come to!

    -- Eat your greens or I'll hit you!

  • If you're big on Linux, try that microwindows thing - it should run on lowspec hardware. KDE is slow on my 233mhz PC - God knows what it's like on a 486. One other possible market, however, is for people who can't learn computers. I have a friend and a mother in this category. My mom's post heart op and has lousy short term memory, but is trying to learn how to use a PC. She's trying HARD, but cannot remember simple stuff. I've yet to find an email client that's so simple it doesn't have to be learned - if I did, she might be able to use it. I know kids are supposed to learn, but maybe an interface that's so simple a 4 year old could understand it is just what my mother needs...! Have fun...
  • ...are you gonna pay for the licenses?
    even more, old (which will run on 486) M$ OSes aren't sold anymore, but they'll still get mad at you if you don't pay the licenses fee.

    Quite entertaining policy, isn't it? You MUST pay for something you cannot have. Cool :)
  • Popmail is an email client so simple it does not need to be learned. Do a search for it.
  • I believe the perfect place to start would be LinuxforKids.com [linuxforkids.com]. You'll find links to Open Source educational software and Linux distributions like Debian Jr. [debian.org] that are designed with children in mind.

  • I think the point here is not "what is the best distro to use?" but is there currently software appropriate for the age range in question. The answer is yes and no. Yes there is a limited amount of software, but of course more is available for windows.

    personally as a software developer I would look more towards the non-X spectrum with these 486's as they will run quite slowly with X. You might look into running FreeDos (the operating system) or DosEmu under linux without X. Some of the best Educational software was written for Dos, not Windows, and up until a couple years ago most of the good stuff was still Dos software. Or if you feel like playing with code you could write your own console linux apps.

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