# Need an OS recommendation for children.



## KuJoe (Mar 13, 2014)

My daughter just turned 3 years old this week and I'm looking to install a new OS on her netbook since she's been getting more and more familiar with Windows 7 to the point that she can use Chrome fairly well and I'm afraid of some of the trouble she can get into on a Windows OS (she's already ordered things off Amazon in the past, luckily Amazon is extremely nice about refunding digital content because each season of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is $75-$120 each).

She's been using Windows 7 for the past year so she's competent navigating that interface with a keyboard/mouse/keypad but she's also been using android devices for just as long so she can handle a minimal interface also.

I'm mainly looking for something with parental controls while introducing her to linux since Windows is so easy to use and I want her to grow up learning linux.

Here are the specs of her netbook in case that's a factor for any specific OS:

Intel Atom N550 Dual-Core 1.5GHz

2GB DDR3 RAM

64GB SSD Drive

Intel GMA 3150 w/Broadcom CrystalHD Video Accelerator

802.11n Wireless


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## joepie91 (Mar 13, 2014)

These might be useful: http://opensource.com/education/14/1/teaching-kids-linux and http://www.brighthub.com/computing/linux/articles/43224.aspx

Really, though? Ordering things from Amazon at 3 years old? I'm impressed.


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## MannDude (Mar 13, 2014)

http://hannahmontana.sourceforge.net/

Keep her sheltered from what Hannah Montana turns into later in her life, though.


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## KuJoe (Mar 13, 2014)

joepie91 said:


> These might be useful: http://opensource.com/education/14/1/teaching-kids-linux and http://www.brighthub.com/computing/linux/articles/43224.aspx
> 
> Really, though? Ordering things from Amazon at 3 years old? I'm impressed.


I've been wanting to use Qimo as recommended by both of those links but it looks like it's using an EOL version of Ubuntu so no patches and it hasn't been updated since 2010. I did manage to find a working download link so I'm still downloading it to try it out.


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## Francisco (Mar 13, 2014)

What about ChromeOS or whatever they call it?

Francisco


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## Aldryic C'boas (Mar 13, 2014)

Alys prefers Gentoo >_>


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## DomainBop (Mar 13, 2014)

http://www.doudoulinux.org/web/english/index.html based on Debian stable, LXDE desktop, in active development (latest version was released was 3 months ago)


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## raindog308 (Mar 13, 2014)

MannDude said:


> http://hannahmontana.sourceforge.net/
> 
> Keep her sheltered from what Hannah Montana turns into later in her life, though.


I'm opening a ticket with SecureDragon right now to request that image be made available for KVM.


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## sv01 (Mar 13, 2014)

Debian with XFCE ? 

and setup Unbound to filter bad site


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## Magiobiwan (Mar 14, 2014)

Edubuntu maybe?


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## shovenose (Mar 14, 2014)

I know you already got the netbook, but what about a Chromebook ??


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## rds100 (Mar 14, 2014)

Why don't you just block / stop the internet to the laptop? Then she can watch whatever movies are downloaded on the laptop, but not anything from the internet.


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## Nett (Mar 14, 2014)

Srsly only 3 years old? And she can use the computer well and order things online?? Some toddlers can't even understand many words at that time.

You'd better off install a network filtration device or a DNS filtration service to block inappropriate websites and ports.


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## GIANT_CRAB (Mar 14, 2014)

Nett said:


> Srsly only 3 years old? And she can use the computer well and order things online?? Some toddlers can't even understand many words at that time.


I only started walking baby steps at 3 years old.


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## joepie91 (Mar 14, 2014)

Another thing that popped into my mind; there might be a children-oriented image in the SUSE Studio Gallery. Those are basically all openSUSE derivatives with custom features/packages/configuration/etc.


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## telephone (Mar 14, 2014)

I'd recommend Elementary OS. It's like the Mac version of Ubuntu  :lol:... While it's not my cup of tea, it's very straightforward and I've installed it on old laptops for friends children before.

For parental control:


Time limit enforcement: Timeoutd (package available)
Website filtering:
OpenDNS - various pre-set filter levels, and ability to add custom sites
DansGuardian with squid/privoxy

*OR* instead of filtering, you can use tinyproxy and firehol to create a whitelist

[*]Key logging: Logkeys (use SVN version)

All of the parental controls can be applied to any distro, so it'd be best just to choose a child friendly UI and go from there.


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## KuJoe (Mar 14, 2014)

Francisco said:


> What about ChromeOS or whatever they call it?
> 
> 
> Francisco


I considered that but Chrome/ChromiumOS is a little limited from what I've seen from it. It's not out of the question but I'd still prefer a linux OS so when she's older I can just install another Linux flavor and she'll pick it right up.



Aldryic C said:


> Alys prefers Gentoo >_>


My co-worker suggested this to me also, I'll have to check it out now since that's 2 recommendations in 24 hours from people with experience.



DomainBop said:


> http://www.doudoulinux.org/web/english/index.html based on Debian stable, LXDE desktop, in active development (latest version was released was 3 months ago)


Downloading. 



Magiobiwan said:


> Edubuntu maybe?


I've read mixed reviews for this from parents who have tried it and it seems more suited for a classroom than a child's computer according to most of the people... I'm not sure what that even means but I'll add it to the list to download and test.



shovenose said:


> I know you already got the netbook, but what about a Chromebook ??


I don't want to spend anymore money right now, she's already got a tablet and a netbook. 



rds100 said:


> Why don't you just block / stop the internet to the laptop? Then she can watch whatever movies are downloaded on the laptop, but not anything from the internet.


I wish this was an option but all of her classes are online. She's not old enough to go to school so we enrolled her in an online school that she works on whenever she feels like it so we don't want to restrict her access if she wants to use it. Additionally the only movies she watches are on Netflix and Amazon On Demand, although I do like the idea of saving content locally so she has access to a few movies and music if we're on the road.



Nett said:


> Srsly only 3 years old? And she can use the computer well and order things online?? Some toddlers can't even understand many words at that time.
> 
> You'd better off install a network filtration device or a DNS filtration service to block inappropriate websites and ports.


I was considering adding ClearOS to our network for filtering but wasn't ready to go buy a home server just yet. I will definitely be adding something at the network level when she's old enough to bypass the OS restrictions.



telephone said:


> I'd recommend Elementary OS. It's like the Mac version of Ubuntu  :lol:... While it's not my cup of tea, it's very straightforward and I've installed it on old laptops for friends children before.
> 
> For parental control:
> 
> ...


Thanks telephone, Elementary OS looks nice and the apps you suggested really opens up my options a lot.


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## dave (Mar 14, 2014)

I had linux on my son's computer when he was younger for a long time.  As he got older, he kept asking and wishing for windows, so he could play the games he wanted to play.  So eventually we switched back to windows.


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## KuJoe (Mar 14, 2014)

dave said:


> I had linux on my son's computer when he was younger for a long time.  As he got older, he kept asking and wishing for windows, so he could play the games he wanted to play.  So eventually we switched back to windows.


Luckily my daughter is only 3 so all of the games she plays are flash based and she doesn't know the difference between Windows/Linux/Android yet.

When she's older she's welcome to install whatever OS she wants but for now I want her to have some exposure to linux.


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## Aldryic C'boas (Mar 14, 2014)

KuJoe said:


> When she's older she's welcome to install whatever OS she wants but for now I want her to have some exposure to linux.


Watch that doesn't come around to bite you, though   Got mine started on linux, and now she's developed a complex about as bad as my own >_>

Only 10, and already she has a good handle on bash, and has me helping her learn perl.


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## willie (Mar 14, 2014)

I thought this was what Sugar (the OLPC desktop) was for.  I'd be less worried about the client OS than about exposing her to the pervasive creepiness and tracking on the internet though.  At minimum I'd set up an aggressively configured firewall and adblock.


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## fisle (Mar 14, 2014)

Aldryic C said:


> and has me helping her learn perl.



That's evil. Teach her some python or ruby for maximum hipsterness

edit: oh right except nodejs is the shit nowadays right?


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## Aldryic C'boas (Mar 14, 2014)

...since when is perl 'hipster'? O_ô

In any case, I started her on bash and perl to enforce good coding habits.  Once she has those, she can branch out easily into any other language she wants to learn.


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## fisle (Mar 14, 2014)

Aldryic C said:


> ...since when it perl 'hipster'? O_ô
> 
> In any case, I started her on bash and perl to enforce good coding habits.  Once she has those, she can branch out easily into any other language she wants to learn.



I mean you're being evil teaching her perl, and jokingly suggested the hipsterish ones


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## dano (Mar 14, 2014)

+1 for Qimo -- let the 5-6 year olds play around with it, and they seemed to like the games. Their instance of Qimo is not connected to the net and just runs as a virtualbox vm with Linux Mint as the host os.


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## jarland (Mar 14, 2014)

Sounds like sticking with windows is the best idea. If she's familiar with it you're preparing her to do well in school and that continued practice is great. Locking down windows is possible. Sandbox everything with sandboxie and keep a solid antivirus anyway, worth paying for a good one like ESET. Use browser plugins to control environment and lock it down so the plugins can't be toyed with, Firefox has so much in their about:config I'm sure it's possible.


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## joepie91 (Mar 14, 2014)

KuJoe said:


> Luckily my daughter is only 3 so all of the games she plays are flash based and she doesn't know the difference between Windows/Linux/Android yet.
> 
> When she's older she's welcome to install whatever OS she wants but for now I want her to have some exposure to linux.


You'll want to make sure to have PlayOnLinux installed. Just in case at some point she wants to play Windows games


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## texteditor (Mar 14, 2014)

Aldryic C said:


> and has me helping her learn perl.


that's it, I'm calling CPS on you.


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## Raymii (Mar 14, 2014)

Have you looked at Linux Mint? It just works, and also has some parental controls.


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## Magiobiwan (Mar 14, 2014)

jarland said:


> Sounds like sticking with windows is the best idea. If she's familiar with it you're preparing her to do well in school and that continued practice is great. Locking down windows is possible. Sandbox everything with sandboxie and keep a solid antivirus anyway, worth paying for a good one like ESET. Use browser plugins to control environment and lock it down so the plugins can't be toyed with, Firefox has so much in their about:config I'm sure it's possible.


This may be the best idea. Schools tend to use Windows exclusively, as well as MS Office rather than Linux and LibreOffice/OpenOffice. I'm all for the adoption of Linux as a Desktop OS, but Windows DOES have the majority of the market share for a reason.


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## joepie91 (Mar 14, 2014)

Magiobiwan said:


> but Windows DOES have the majority of the market share for a reason.


Yes, that reason primarily being artificial vendor lock-in through "school programmes" by Microsoft - exactly the kind of thing you're encouraging here.


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## jarland (Mar 14, 2014)

joepie91 said:


> Yes, that reason primarily being artificial vendor lock-in through "school programmes" by Microsoft - exactly the kind of thing you're encouraging here.


Encouraging a handicap on children is not the way to change that, if such is your desire. Anyone who has mixed in OpenOffice in a high school system knows that it can't be done by inching it in, it either has to be changed at home and all school computers at once or it creates headaches and missed homework assignments. Been there done that. Did the best I could, I caused more harm than good. You can't force everyone to a new standard unless you're willing to fire them for refusing to adopt it, not something the student can do.

Kids need to know windows and Microsoft office for school, at least in the US, and that's the way it is. It cannot be changed by one student, as the only message that student will send in that school is "I have chosen a handicap and I will not be turning in my homework to your exact specifications."


Keep in mind I'm not saying that I like it, but rejecting standards on principle at the expense of your success only weakens your voice and lowers your chances of rising to a position to influence it in a way that has the potential of working. Take a crazy example of a homeless guy who morally opposes housing, and everyone thinks he's crazy so he has no real voice. Then take the senator who opposes housing, his influence is higher.


Sorry to go off topic, just sharing my view on why it's important to prepare children for the reality ahead of them so that they can function in society. When they pick a profession as they grow, they can influence change from the platform they have worked to stand on. Society does not always reward rebels.


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## DomainBop (Mar 14, 2014)

> Kids need to know windows and Microsoft office for school, at least in the US, and that's the way it is.


I didn't know Windows as a child or young adult in the US (and I didn't even have a computer), and I can honestly say it caused absolutely no problem at all in either high school or college. 

first  person to call me grandpa dies


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## jarland (Mar 14, 2014)

DomainBop said:


> I didn't know Windows as a child or young adult in the US (and I didn't even have a computer), and I can honestly say it caused absolutely no problem at all in either high school or college.
> 
> first person to call me grandpa dies


Not sure how old you are but times are changing. When you can turn in a word document for homework and your OpenOffice document is misread by word on the day the assignment is due, with formatting specifications required for the grade, you might be out of luck. Your work is only as good as it can be viewed by the teacher that judges it. They'll teach office and windows in school now, so you don't need to know it beforehand, but you will be ahead of the curve by sticking with it and being prepared beforehand, as is usually true with most educational topics.


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## joepie91 (Mar 14, 2014)

jarland said:


> Encouraging a handicap on children is not the way to change that, if such is your desire. Anyone who has mixed in OpenOffice in a high school system knows that it can't be done by inching it in, it either has to be changed at home and all school computers at once or it creates headaches and missed homework assignments. Been there done that. Did the best I could, I caused more harm than good. You can't force everyone to a new standard unless you're willing to fire them for refusing to adopt it, not something the student can do.
> 
> 
> Kids need to know windows and Microsoft office for school, at least in the US, and that's the way it is. It cannot be changed by one student, as the only message that student will send in that school is "I have chosen a handicap and I will not be turning in my homework to your exact specifications."
> ...


I've used Linux and OpenOffice while in school, and I've had zero issues.


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## jarland (Mar 14, 2014)

joepie91 said:


> I've used Linux and OpenOffice while in school, and I've had zero issues.


You also don't live in the US so there may be a different culture that makes the situation a bit better. However there are formatting issues often between the two.


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## KuJoe (Mar 14, 2014)

Anybody can use Windows, especially Windows 8. It's also worth mentioning that my daughter most likely will be home schooled but even if she isn't, I doubt she'll be using any of the current or upcoming versions of Windows. Also, Office online is pretty nice these days.


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## jarland (Mar 14, 2014)

KuJoe said:


> Anybody can use Windows, especially Windows 8. It's also worth mentioning that my daughter most likely will be home schooled but even if she isn't, I doubt she'll be using any of the current or upcoming versions of Windows. Also, Office online is pretty nice these days.


Awesome. If you're disciplined and you can do it, so much better than public schools.


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## raindog308 (Mar 14, 2014)

All this is interesting but let's got down to real issues here.

For a 4-year-old: OvZ or Xen or KVM?


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## javaj (Mar 15, 2014)

KuJoe said:


> My daughter just turned 3 years old this week and I'm looking to install a new OS on her netbook since she's been getting more and more familiar with Windows 7 to the point that she can use Chrome fairly well and I'm afraid of some of the trouble she can get into on a Windows OS (she's already ordered things off Amazon in the past, luckily Amazon is extremely nice about refunding digital content because each season of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is $75-$120 each).


Crazy - I just had my 5 year old daughter do the same exact thing on prime about 3 weeks ago, I never even noticed it at first because I use an old email address for Amazon and I hardly ever check it, it wasn't until I checked my bank account that I noticed I had over 5 overdrafts and a very very negative balance. I just about shit. I was just minding my own business that day just coding away while she was sitting at the desk next to me on my laptop putting us on the road to financial ruin...  But yeah, I agree, Amazon is really good about it and reversed all transactions so my bank gave me back my original balance and cancelled all the overdrafts.

As far as OS, I installed Mint awhile ago on another computer she was using before, because my ex decided the Antivirus on windows 7 was ...in here words "Annoying" and kept turning it off so she could download every piece of malware on the internet... But my daughter who was 4 at the time had no problems with Mint, worked just fine and she adapted to it right away, and its pretty amazing how much they pick up so early. So yeah, mint worked for us, but I think any *nix OS with an intuitive UI would work.


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## shovenose (Mar 15, 2014)

Didn't quote the right post, but ClearOS is pretty epic. Used it a few years ago. You don't need to purchase a lot - anything with two NICs will do!


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## KuJoe (Mar 16, 2014)

shovenose said:


> Didn't quote the right post, but ClearOS is pretty epic. Used it a few years ago. You don't need to purchase a lot - anything with two NICs will do!


I run ClearOS on all of my ESXi hosts, I love it. I wish it had IPv6 support since I've been moving everything over to IPv6 since Comcast dumps all IPv6 traffic over to Level3 so I get half the hops that I do over IPv4 at home.


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## eva2000 (Mar 16, 2014)

woah 3yrs old !

I didn't even get my first computer until i was 19 (same time i first went online) ! Times have changed !


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## Exelion (Apr 1, 2014)

I don't think anyone in this thread has mentioned Elementary OS, a Linux distro with possibly the best desktop environment I've ever seen. Imagine OSX, but without the decade old quirky bullshit that is vaguely associated with Steve Jobs.


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