Linux for children?

[cecilieaux]

I have a 9-year-old grandson who is very adept and is learning coding. I'd like to introduce him to Linux, but I fear that even Mint might be a stretch. Is there a Mint for children or another such distro?

[Bolle1961]

Ubuntu used to have edubuntu, Debian has something like that, and I know there is an Argentin distro for that
Debian edu / Skole Linux
https://www.debian.org/News/2019/20190707
Huayra GNU/Linux, don't know if it still exists
https://github.com/HuayraLinux

[Larry78723]

Take a look at this page, maybe one of these will fit the bill. https://www.google.com/search?q=educati ... e&ie=UTF-8

[DAMIEN1307]

This was just published today...15 best linux for kids...enjoy...DAMIEN

https://www.ubuntupit.com/best-linux-fo ... -with-fun/

[rene]

I have a 9-year-old grandson who is very adept and is learning coding. I'd like to introduce him to Linux, but I fear that even Mint might be a stretch. Is there a Mint for children or another such distro?

If he's the type a Raspberry Pi might be welcome. It's basically the originally intended market; runs Linux (Raspbian, a Debian based system) and has e.g. Scratch as a specifically towards children geared programming language. Adds the potential joy of building it up in a nice little case and/or of some general hardware programming, i.e., small robotics stuff or some such if you get some relevant peripherals also...

[Rocky Bennett]

Great links, thanks.

[Ivy_Pool]

LM is no more difficult than using Windows, MacOs, or Chrome. My youngest uses Scratch, LibreOffice (docs, ppts, and spreadsheet) Geogebra, some Anki, and Firefox on her LM laptop. We recently used software for stargazing. I'm planning on teaching her HTML5 and CSS programming this fall and introducing her to Zotero. She has used Scratch since she was about 8 years old, and LM consistently for school work for about a year.

You could check out Fedora's Sugar on a Stick if a straight-up Linux distro seems like too much.

[Petermint]

Good free reading for beginners. https://www.raspberrypi.org/books-magazines/ Most of the Pi based code clubs start with 8 year olds, which also makes the reading easy for old farts who only understand paper tape.

A younger person might be more interested in hardware/programming if they can use the results. For example, monitoring a terrarium or the weather or automatically watering a flower garden. Programming can be exciting when you buy a robot kit.

Most of the things in Raspberry Pi can run on any other Debian based Linux. Some of the hardware interfaces can be attached through USB. There are a heap of projects based on a Wifi connection.

[Hoser Rob]

RasbPis are cool but it should be noted that you can't run Mint on them because they use the ARM architecture. MX Linux makes a cool looking RasbPi Debian based version now.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Don't sell that nine year old short. If he is already starting to learn coding, he'll probably pick up on Linux faster than most of us flatulent geriatrics.

[Petermint]

Raspberry Pi Desktop: https://www.raspberrypi.org/software/operating-systems/

For the PC, they use Debian Buster with LXDE. That Debian link means all the educational ingredients for the Pi are also in Mint flavour and anything from Mint that is in Debian is baked for a Pi.

[Termy]

I looked into Edubuntu just now, and it seems it's pretty much an abandoned project, with the last LTS being 14.04.2, which is ancient and unsupported history, assuming they were using the usual Ubuntu versioning. That said, you can still get a whole crap-ton of stuff from that distribution in standard Ubuntu-based distributions, like Linux Mint, by installing various packages:

Code: Select all

# List some packages containing a lot of educational software.
apt-cache search ubuntu-edu-

# Install the primary educational application bundle.
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-edu-primary

I can confirm these packages exist in Ubuntu 18.04's repositories (Universe).

There is a lot of educational software in the standard Ubuntu repositories, basically.

[Petermint]

Looking at some of the software listed in "kids" distributions. Tuxpaint? I had a 5 year old neighbour walk in and use it then he showed his 3 year old sister how to use it. Some of the other listed applications are standard office stuff you give to the work experience kid from high school. Code clubs start with 8 year olds. The Raspberry Pi for Intel desktops is called Pixel and has a variety of interesting software plus their Web site has a ton of books and magazines you can download for free.

What does your 9 yo do when not on a computer? He might be more interested in computers if he can edit his tik tok videos or load his fitbit/garmen results into a relevant application. A Raspberry Pi robot could be his next pet.

Create your own games:
https://magpi.raspberrypi.org/articles/ ... with-renpy

[ralplpcr]

Check out Endless OS, perhaps?

It's got a bunch of child-oriented coding games that will help introduce basic computing concepts and build a foundation on which he can expand his knowledge. It is designed similarly to a ChromeOS or "smartphone"-type OS, so the initial interface should be immediately familiar....but with it's Linux backend will also help familiarize him with how Linux operates.

It is a very large download, however. While it *can* be run from USB, performance is horrible until it's installed on the HDD. Good for a VM, maybe?

[SimonPeter]

I think a good way would be to install Mint and then install educational software (Scratch, GCompris, ...)

This may be helpful: https://itsfoss.com/educational-linux-distros/

The government of a state called Kerala in India has an educational Linux distro, named "IT@School GNU/Linux", based on Ubuntu LTS.
We were one of the first to adopt Linux in schools, and we continue using it.
Here, every school's Computer Lab has this distro installed, for children from KinderGarten to 12th grade.

https://www.kite.kerala.gov.in/KITE/ind ... /downloads

[ivar]

I'd think a Raspberry Pi kit would be just as fun for a 9 yo as it is for adults

[SimonPeter]

I'd think a Raspberry Pi kit would be just as fun for a 9 yo as it is for adults

Yep.

[Petermint]

Pi 400 instead of a desktop. Faster than the Compaq luggable I used to use. 16 times the memory.

I have Zero, Zero W, 3B, and made a few projects just for fun. In Australia, the smallest Pi 4 is available for about the same price as a 3B, 3B+. For a first Pi, the 2 GB Pi 4 would be my choice. The 4 GB Pi 4 is almost the same as a notebook computer I used for Linux Mint several years ago. The Pi 400 is the 4 GB Pi 4 formatted in a line in the back of a small notebook style keyboard.

I hate notebook keyboards with their multiuse keys. I would buy the Pi 4 and a separate keyboard mouse. Ask a frequent writer or a gaming nut about keyboards. Allocate 2 ~ 3 days to listen while they rant.

Instead of the official Pi plastic case, get one of the transparent cases to show off the Pi.

[SimonPeter]

No kid and no adult will have any problem doing the standard things on linux mint. Many of my family including 8-10 years kids sit on my computer and have no problem.
..........
Anyway the bottom line is that everyone can use a linux system.

I agree.
For anyone (including kids), Linux Mint is as usable as (or more usable than) Windows.

[mintscorlock]

I've been making my kids use Mint since before Windows 7 support was expiring for ordinary users, and Microsoft hard coded cyberstalking spyware into Windows 10. That was a no-go for me, especially so since the Win10 license agreement requires you to submit to the cyberstalking spyware features built in to Win10. It's just creepy...

My kids were 7 and 13 when we switched to Mint. I found that if I followed a few [not all] suggestions found at "Easy Linux Tips Project" that Mint was actually quite good for game and school use.

We even replaced Win10 on the school provided k12 laptops, by switching m.2 drives and installing Mint on the new drives. When we returned the laptops at the end of the school year, we simply put back the school provided m.2 drives with Win10.

It's been very good for my younger child to learn about adding/updating Minecraft, Steam, Java, WINE, playonlinux, Lutris, Firefox, Thunderbird email and calendars, etc. That child is now 10 years old and doing fine with Mint, though he does need some help to get things working sometimes.