Introducing your Child to Linux
October 16, 2009
The Linux operating system offers an excellent learning opportunity for children, whether for educational software and games, programming, or general computer skills. Charles Profitt, a K-12 systems administrator, shares with SmartBean the nuts and bolts of introducing kids to Linux. His guidelines for the why, what and how of getting going with Linux and open source computing at home are lucid and helpful.
What are the benefits of using Linux or any other open source software/open source operating system?
- The easiest benefit for most people to identify is cost. You do not pay for Linux and other Free/Open Source Software (F/OSS). If you want to install it on one computer or several thousand the price to acquire the software is zero.
- Another advantage is security. While some would argue that having the source ‘exposed’ is a security hole that has not been proven to be true. In fact the exact opposite has been the case. The fact that the source is open has produced an environment in which security flaws are patched rapidly.
- The one reason that most Linux and F/OSS users eventually end up identifying as a benefit is freedom. Linux and F/OSS software is free as in liberty. As an end user you really control your user experience. With Windows and OS X you are locked in to what Steve and Steve (Balmer and Jobs) decide to give you. With Linux you get to chose between Gnome, KDE and several other windows manager choices or even have several and switch between them. With Linux you have the freedom to choose a very stable distribution like Debian or a bleeding edge distribution like Arch. My personal choice is Ubuntu which is in the middle of the two extremes. With Ubuntu you can slide to one side or the other by choosing to run their latest release or their long term support (LTS) release. If you do not like OpenOffice you can use AbiWord or KOffice.
- Another feature that lowers the ‘entry’ cost to computing is the fact that Linux has lower system requirements than either Windows or Mac OS X. It does this while still providing an advanced operating system.
- Ubuntu’s minimum specs are 256MB of RAM and 4gb of hard disk space
- Windows requires 1GB of RAM minimum (recommends 2 GB), 20 GB of hard disk space and a DVD drive, and
- Mac OS X requires 1GB of RAM, 5 GB of hard disk space and a DVD drive.
- For people who really want to learn more about how computers work or about programming Linux and F/OSS software is fantastic because it allows you to see the ‘code’. Working with F/OSS development projects is like being an apprentice to a master craftsman who is willing to share all his secrets with you.
What are some good free open source software options for machines for children?
- System76 offers systems with Ubuntu pre-installed. You can get anything from Netbooks to servers from them. The Starling Netbook is their netbook offering and competes well against other vendors for price and features. The entry level laptop is the Darter Ultra and has a 12.1″ screen.
- Zareason offers systems with Ubuntu and Edubuntu pre-installed. You can also get anything from netbooks to servers from them.
- Dell offers systems with Ubuntu pre-installed as well. Again these range from their Minis to Desktops. They offer the 15.6″ Inspirion 15n at a very attractive price.
- Intel Classmate. The Intel Classmate is a ‘netbook’ built for students. While it is on the small side with only an 8.7″ screen it is made to hold up to the abuse younger children will give a computer.
- OLPC computers, which are not readily available to individuals, run Fedora Linux as their OS and a very modified interface called Sugar. My young children, ages two and three, have really enjoyed playing with the device.Other than that if you have an older computer you can always use a liveCD to test if the computer will work well. A liveCD is a CD that will boot to Linux and allow you to see if all your hardware is recognised and test out the operating system. The performance will be better once installed because CD drives are much slower than hard drives, but liveCDs are very valuable for testing prior to installation.
How should I get this going?
- What are the basic hardware requirements? Ubuntu’s minimum specs are: 256mb of ram, 4gb of disk space (for a graphical install 384mb of ram are required).
- Can I use a regular windows or mac machine for this? Yes. It will prove more difficult if you are trying to use a Mac with the PowerPC processor, but all recent Apple computers have Intel Processors. The last non-Intel Mac was the PowerMac G5 which was last sold in 2006.
- What are the steps that need to be followed? There are three ways to get started.
- Download an .iso file and burn an install CD/DVD with from the .iso file.
- Order a free Ubuntu disk from Shipit.com. They will ship a free ‘official’ cd to you for either the desktop or server edition.
- Order from an on-line company that distributes professionally made CDs. I recommend www.on-disk.com which sells Ubuntu for $3.99 + shipping. After the disc is received or burned you simply use it the same way you would install Windows or OS X.
- If I run into problems, is there a good, useful support group I could turn to? There are numerous avenues for support. They include:
- Forums (ubuntuforums.org)
- Wikis (wiki.ubuntu.com)
- Local User Groups (known as LUGs for short)
- Ubuntu also have Local Community Teams in most US States and several countries (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoTeams)
- Paid support can be purchased for most major distributions (Ubuntu is supported by Canonical – www.canonical.com)
- How much technical knowledge is required to accomplish this?
While technical knowledge is helpful you will likely need no more technical expertise than you would for installing Windows or OS X.
Googling on linux/ubuntu installation brings up a lot of links and not all are aimed at a non-technical audience. Is there a “definitive primer” that provides more hand-holding through the process?
For Ubuntu the definitive guide would be on their wiki. There are three guides for Ubuntu:
- Graphical installer – easy
- 32bit alternate install – more technical
- 64bit alternate install – more technical
What all could I have my kids do on a linux machine?
Edubuntu is an educationally focused version of Ubuntu. It includes educational software in bundles broken down in to the following groups:
- Preschool (less than five years old)
- Primary (aged five through twelve)
- Secondary (aged thirteen through eighteen)
- Tertiary (university level)
Edubuntu has historically been an add-on to an existing Ubuntu install, but starting with the 9.10 release the release will be contained on a single DVD. The 9.10 release will be available on October 29th.
If you would like to ask questions or get involved in helping the project improve you can do so using the projects email lists:
- Edubuntu users
- Edubuntu contributors
- Ubuntu Education discussions – development list is for the discussion of the development which includes feature requests and ideas; there is no need for you to be a developer.
For more information please got to the main page for the project – http://www.edubuntu.org/
In addition, your kids can do just about anything they could do on a Windows or OS X computer. A more complex answer would be that they have the following applications included in the initial install of Ubuntu:
- OpenOffice – word processing, spread sheets, presentations, business drawings
- Inkskape – an alternative to Adobe Illustrator to edit or create vector images
- GIMP – an application for editing pictures or other bitmap images
- Rythmbox – a music player similar to iTunes or MediaPlayer
- Firefox – browsing the internet
- Evolution – an email client similar to Outlook
- F-Spot – an image catalog
In addition to these applications that are installed initially there are thousands of applications that can be installed using the Ubuntu repositories. Repositories are the equivalent of the Apple App store for your computer, but with no cost for the applications.
| Charles Profitt is a systems administrator for a K-12 school district in Western NY and has worked in information technology since the 90s. He has experience with Windows, OS X and Linux both as desktops and servers. He is currently an Ubuntu Member and a Fedora Ambassador. He also serves as the lead contact for LUGOR (Linux User Group of Rochester) and is the Vice President of the NY State Ubuntu Local Community. Charles is passionate about making a difference in kids’ lives through technology, and specifically open source tools. |
Tags
FOSS, linux, open source, ubuntu
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Charles, hate Windows much?
Thanks for the good introductory post to get people started with Linux for their kids.
My 6yr old son is using Ubuntu 9.10 on my old HP laptop. He enjoys it very much.
my 6 yr old son has only ever used linux. He hates the computers he has to use at school. I keep hearing you “can’t do this on our computers at school” or “schools computers are rubbish”. We don’t use any fantastic hardware at home an old dell optiplex gx270 p4 2.8Ghz 512Mb (ebay for £30). Where school has much newer hardware with windows. Tuxpaint absolutely rocks for kids. Its a hit with all his friends, along with frozen bubble, neverball an d neverputt, Kturtle, the Gcompis apps and he’s even having fun writing some simple python programs.
Tell the kids with Linux its easy to write your own games, then show them, and their hooked staright away. Remember your own youth tapping away on the dead flesh of the sinclairs, C64s etc. No matter how good the bought stuff was I always got more fun from producing something myself. I don’t think this has really changed, we just don’t expect them to want to do this. Kids are creative…… let them create!
My kids love the games on edubuntu.
Bob:
I actually have no ‘hate’ for Windows. I just really enjoy Linux (especially Ubuntu) because it allows me to be in control of my computer again and ‘tweak’ things.
Charles, thanks for the article. Something close to my heart too, with 3 children under 5 and a room full of “obsolete” computers!
I just wanted to mention Qimo ( http://www.qimo4kids.com/ ). I confess, I have not tried it out yet but it looks interesting.
The problems I have with all the educational software available at the moment are (1) the US english and (2) that they don’t tend to support the way that the children learn letters and words at nursery and reception age. They mainly use a scheme called “jolly-phonics”. The software I can find usually uses capital letters (which they don’t use yet) and has quite a different approach. I know of course that the answer is to get coding and scratch my itch, and if I ever get time (see above about 3 children under 5) then I might just do that!
The software for slightly older children, teens and advanced students is amazing. I hope that eventually the tiny ones will be able to benefit as much from Free Software too.
That said, Tuxpaint *is* the best, bar none.
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My 12-year-old daughter’s computer suffered a hard drive failure, so rather than reinstall the OS that was OEM installed on it (we bought it used at an estate sale) I found an old hard drive at the office and loaded Ubuntu Jaunty on it, then loaded Cairo Dock on it to make the environment a bit friendlier for her. She immediately went about personalizing her environment (colors and wallpaper are very important to preteen girls) and then got down to business.
She uses Gmail, but we set up Evolution using the IMAP client which she likes for both mail and calendar, although she does still use iGoogle for her home page (with countdown gadgets for the latest release in the Twilight series and the next Harry Potter movie as well as other stuff).
She can get Pandora Radio and quickly figured out how to use Rhythmbox to manage her MP3 player, backing up her player to the local drive, music also being very important to young ladies. She also very quickly figured out how to use multiple workspaces, switching from chat sessions to something that looks boring when her mom comes in the room.
She’s able to do all she wants with the new Ubuntu box, and is very pleased with how fast it is compared with the old OS (whose name we shall not mention). Even though Ubuntu is immune to most of the malware out there, we loaded Avast on the new box, but we don’t expect any virus problems as malware hasn’t yet learned to sudo AFAIK.
My daughter is delighted with the new setup, and with a Linux machine on her desk along with having built several PCs from components under her belt, she’s well on her way to getting her geek on, all without compromising being a girly girl.
Her little brother at age 6 uses an old Dell Notebook also loaded with Ubuntu. I downloaded a bunch of old cartoons and Three Stooges episodes from the Internet Archive, and he boots up to watch those as well as newer stuff (Ben 10 and StarWars) on the web, as well as playing a number of classic video games (or their open source equivalents) on the box. He’s really only interested in games thus far, but at six he’s already quite the computer polyglot, having classic iMacs in his classroom at school, the Ubuntu box he plays with, and some time on Mom’s Windows 7 RC1 desktop (she’s set in her ways, but we’re working on her too.
But I’m doing my best to get the kids infected with the Free software bug and help them to learn to be flexible and self-sufficient with technology. It’s a very modest start, but they think Linux is cool, even if they think dad isn’t.
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Awesome article,, Qimo touched me so much I have created a local initiative to rebuild old computers and give the back to the community. I am now almost 100% Ubuntu and I am blown away by it everyday.
Thanks for the article