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Re: [kidsgames] Tux Family Linux



Michael McGlothlin wrote:
> 
> I'm playing with concepts for a distro of Linux released with pre-teens in
> mind.

Hmmm - interesting idea.

Have you seen this:

  http://www.linuxfromscratch.org

...it's an extended "How to make your own distro" HOWTO guide.

> I figure the installation can have three choices, Tux Jr, Ms. Tux, and
> Tux Family.

Ms. Tux has a name - she is called 'Gown'.

> The first of course would includes games and themes most likely to
> interest boys, the second games and themes most likely to interest girls, and
> the last would have both for those who have more than one child or who just
> want a gender-neutral install.

I find it hard to think of ANY existing Linux games that would interest Girls
but not Boys.  (You might argue that we should write some...but to be honest
I think it's going to be a hard sell for most developers).  I don't think
you'd be thanked for leaving off games from the Girls' install just because
you think they are a bit 'boyish' either...that would be discrimination.

I think you could just stuff ALL the games onto the disk and be done with it.

Maybe you'd want to make some more girl-specific desktop themes - but
the boys will enjoy going "Eeeuuuwwwwww!  Pink windows with heart-shaped
buttons - UCK!"...so you might as well dump those onto the Boy's installs
too.

> The basic idea is that children don't need a
> full-blown Linux dist for themself and today it is common for children to have
> their own computers.

Maybe - but times are changing with Linux's good network support.

My kid has his own machine - but since we have Linux - and network cards
can be had for $25 - it's running NFS with all of the tools and stuff
that he needs sitting on my 20Gb hard drive. In that way, we just install
ALL of SuSE Linux (and any other stuff we download) onto one machine and
he can use the computer in his room - or the big box with the faster CPU
in the familt room - or just plug my laptop into a 10baseT socket in
just about any room in the house and see the exact same environment there.

I realise that since I'm something of a computer nut, I probably have
more 'stuff' than most people - but if you are thinking of a multi-PC
Linux-based household - then it's not much of a stretch to assume that
they are all networked and hence what is on the 'Adult' PC is the exact
same setup as on the 'Kids' PC.  The guy who built my house two years
ago told me then that about a third of the houses he was building
back then had 10baseT networks in them - the last time I talked to him
(about six months ago), he'd decided to make it a standard feature
since Cat-6 cable is not much more expensive than phone lines now -
and LOTS of people are asking for multiple phone lines in each room
so they can connect up modems and such.

So, I predict that multiple-Linux-PC families will network them
routinely.

Really, the only thing that distinguishes the kid PC and my PC is that
his has better graphics and sound (for games) and mine has more CPU and
'owns' the expensive peripherals - printer, scanner, CD-writer, etc.

That being the case, I don't think I'd install a kid-specific distro...
but I could see a lot of people going for it - so it's still a good
idea.

> So we could offer a lite distro w/ the games, themes, and
> tools (KOffice, etc) that children might need or want.

Yep - playing with the desktop themes is a major activity for my
son.  Of course if you make the mistake of logging in as him, you'll
need to wear dark glasses and turn off the speaker because his desktop
is 'themed' to death and every single KDE event has a silly noise
tied to it.

Adding more 'kid-oriented' themes and some extra silly sound effects
might be a good thing for your distro.

> The likelyhood of the
> average eight year-old needing their own domain server is slim so we could
> take that out.

I should introduce you to my 9 year old....maybe the need for a domain
server is something that just 'happens' on your ninth birthday.  :-)

Well - OK - not a domain server - but having lots of the advanced tools
on his machine so that Daddy can administer it seems like a smart move.

> I have no desire to open any company or such but to have a
> group designed version of Linux for children that is available online would be
> great. I'm sure Cheap-Bytes or someone would sell copies of it to those who
> didn't want to download it.

Yep - it seems like a reasonable idea.

-- 
Steve Baker                  http://web2.airmail.net/sjbaker1
sjbaker1@airmail.net (home)  http://www.woodsoup.org/~sbaker
sjbaker@hti.com      (work)


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