Ask HN: How would u setup a child's first Linux computer?

37•evolve2k•1h ago

As a tech parent I think one of the best things I did for both my son and daughter was for their first computer to help them to build and setup their own Linux computer (It was Ubuntu back then but they’ve both moved themselves to Arch these days).

We went together and bought a second hand desktop (exciting the people selling to us also) and when I got home I pulled out the Ram, HD and CD drive and set them aside; and then together with a screwdriver we “built the computer” over a few days.

In windows when a child goes searching the web for a “movie maker for windows” they are going to be in a world of hurt either finding expensive commercial options or super scammy sites promising the world.

By comparison on Linux if they search the local “app store” they’ll find stacks and stacks of free, useful, open licensed software.

My kids loved the power, freedom and later unexpected community this bought them.

Now my friend wants the same for their daughter who is 8 years old.

I’m planning to do the same and go with her parents and her and buy a second hand desktop together and then put Linux on it.

My question is where would you go from there? What suggestions do you have? What to install? Any mini “curriculums” or ideas?

Would love to hear your ideas and experiences. Linux with free and open software is the goal and focus.

Comments

theothertimcook•1h ago

Endless OS on a ex corporate box/laptop could be a good option.

https://distrowatch.com/table-mobile.php?distribution=endles...

al_borland•1h ago

I got my nephews a raspberry pi for their first computer. I tried gifting an old laptop, but that was rejected my the parents as “too much”, so I went the Pi route… first with a Kano Kit (which I think is no defunct) and later with a Pi 400.

The Kano was nice, because it was built for kids and had some guided stuff to help get them into it with various software and hardware to play around with.

With the Pi 400 it was stock Raspbian. The kid wasn’t sure where to begin. While it came with a book geared toward kids, I don’t know that he read it. I was trying to find a way to show him around to stuff he might think is fun, without it seeming boring over overwhelming, but I didn’t feel it went that well. I was also living 6 hours away at the time, so there weren’t regular visits for questions or to help things along, and the parents didn’t know anything about Linux.

Ultimately, I don’t think it inspired them as much as I was hoping. All they actually wanted was something to play Minecraft on, and the Pi edition was a very compromised experience for Minecraft. The Kano did have a mode to let people use Scratch type programming to automate aspects of building, which I thought was really cool, but it didn’t totally seem to click… though I did see some limited use after a couple years.

I think not having someone in the house who can guide and field questions really hindered the ability for them to really thrive on Linux. It would probably be worth including a series of lessons to ramp up their skills and knowledge. Doing something like that was difficult for me due to the distance and also not so much parental support on the idea of kids on computers. I was swimming against the current a little with those gifts, because I thought it was important they get access to the main tool they are likely to use throughout their life.

d3Xt3r•1h ago

I would recommend installing Scratch[1] - it's a programming language designed for kids from 8yrs old onwards. I would recommend pairing it with a Raspberry Pi, as you can do fun real-world physical stuff with using Scratch, and I think kids can find that very interesting. Eg, start with a simple program to turn LED lights on and off, programming buttons, playing sounds etc. Eventually this could lead to making simple games or other programs. Regardless, would highly recommend getting a Raspberry Pi as its just so much fun using it to interact with the physical world and getting to learn actual electronics.

[1] https://scratch.mit.edu/parents/

jerkstate•25m ago

seconded, Scratch is a wonderful learning environment. I would pair it with ChatGPT and supervision, LLMs will really help flesh out ideas and figure out how to implement them for kids who won't know how to start, and since you can't just copy-paste into Scratch, the kid will have to actually do the work of dragging the blocks around. We did some amazing stuff with Scratch - visualizing algebra and trig functions by drawing them as a graphing calculator would, we even made a binary tree based morse code decoder, a rocket simulator (using real-ish rocket equation physics, air resistance, etc). Now we have mostly moved onto Desmos (graphing calculator) and Python.

nrjames•23m ago

As a parent with two kids that used Scratch during 2020 or so… be cautious. The web community was an unregulated social network with follows, likes, comments, and a wide age range (apparently) of people interacting. Around that time, there was a lot of inappropriate content, some bullying, sketches about self-harm, sex, etc. Perhaps they’ve fixed the issue. If not, I would try to install it locally and keep them away from the official website.

Incidentally, I later came to believe that the visual coding impeded their ability to learn text-based coding. That was just my experience and I don’t have formal research to back it up, but I still wonder about it.

bbbhltz•1h ago

We were gifted our old work laptops. My partner and I work for the same place. She gave hers to the mother in law after I wiped Windows and put Linux on it.

I gave mine to my son. I figured that my son might want to use the touch screen I went with Gnome because it seemed a little more touch friendly. I told myself it doesn't matter because he is 8 and I can always reinstall.

I chose Debian (Stable) so I wouldn't have to deal with keeping it updated, put a root password to prevent them from going crazy with installing stuff.

I will have to put Scratch on it someday, for the moment he cares about the following:

- the LEGO website to look at instructions - the music player to listen to soundtracks from his favourite games - MyPaint for making drawings

He is starting to figure out the idea of folders, deleting things, undo, etc., but hasn't asked for any other software or even games yet.

I am a professor and would like for my son to learn about word processors, spreadsheets, programming, etc.. If he ever asks, I will give him the root password and let him browse the repos. Right now, I'm just happy to see him enjoy it without doing what lots of his friends do: sit in front of YouTube all afternoon.

ta12653421•1h ago

how do you manage parentcontrol on YT?

isoprophlex•9m ago

You ban it. It's mental cancer, to both adults and children. And I'm not even being hyperbolic.

Even the kid-safe stuff is so incredibly viral and empty, it kills all creativity and volition.

zarify•44m ago

I recently installed Ubuntu on a little Geekom mini PC for my 6 and 8 year olds to share. So far my 6 yo isn’t too into it, but her older sister mostly uses it for the games I’ve put onto it through Epic and Steam and programming using MakeCode, mostly for Arcade (https://arcade.makecode.com) (I have a couple of micro:bit-based handheld shields) and more recently getting into the awesomely simple networking that the micro:bit provides (https://makecode.microbit.org).

Since the micro:bit requires some file management for programming them, that’s been a good entry point to the file system.

ta12653421•1h ago

Im also interested in this, so happy to hear any experience!

In my situation i need some type of "remote admin capability", since we are separated :-(

drlobster•1h ago

I'd give them a stack of Slackware floppies and half the manual.

nickserv•46m ago

Pretty sure that's against the Geneva convention.

GTP•34m ago

This comment made my day :D

iso1631•43m ago

If that was in the 1990s that would be impressive

If that was in the 2020s...

austin-cheney•58m ago

I would put your entire house behind a custom DNS relay you control, like a PiHole. Use that to eliminate access to advertisements, pornography, some walware, and social media.

I would also consider use of Gentoo as your Linux distribution to force learning about building packages and command line. I would avoid Arch as that might be too much of a challenge.

For me the goal would be forcing them to learn how this stuff works. I would emphasize scripting in the shell like bash scripts, JavaScript via node, Python, and possibly even Perl. This will take a lot of guidance to get this started because they will need some real world use cases about why they immediately benefit.

Once you get the OS finally set up create an ISO of it and put it on both a thumb drive and home file server. Give the kiddo root access to their own computer and let them really break stuff because you can restore from backup

Edit:

Immediately downvoted. This comment apparently caused a nerd god to shed a tear.

subscribed•44m ago

Learning to build packages? Gentoo? PERL?

As a first platform for a preteen?

GTP•42m ago

Starting hardcore carries the risk of giving them a bad firs impression that can keep them from willing to learn thise things in the future.

iso1631•40m ago

> I would put your entire house behind a custom DNS relay you control

Advertising companies are pushing DoH to remove control from you and give them the control, so be aware of that

> I would emphasize scripting in the shell like bash scripts

What would they want to script? What will they achieve? Why would they be interested in this?

edde746•32m ago

I think the benefits of DoH (& ECH) outweigh the negatives, especially when it comes to censorship resistance.

ogig•18m ago

>Advertising companies are pushing DoH to remove control from you and give them the control, so be aware of that

True. My first naive attempt at content filtering for my kids was to use a family friendly DNS for the whole network. That's when I learned about chrome's secure DNS option, witch effectively bypasses my intended settings. I guess endpoint control is the only effective option. A mandatory http proxy could be used to filter by hostname too. None of them easy, and I'm supposed to be an expert. Normal people has little chance of implementing technical parental controls.

nickserv•39m ago

This would not work for mine, they just wouldn't use it under those conditions. I would rather show them a good time initially and increase complexity if they take a liking to learning about computers. My eldest is much more artistic than technical and has little interest in programming and tech in general. But he took to Krita on Linux with enthusiasm.

BTW didn't downvote you.

montroser•31m ago

Thanks for this perspective. For many kids this might be too much of a learning curve -- but for some, it might be right on.

I learned a TON in the 80s as a kid by rummaging around with a retired Kaypro II running CP/M, breaking stuff by accident and fixing, and trying to hack the few games it had...

mystifyingpoi•24m ago

> For me the goal would be forcing them to learn how this stuff works

Ignoring the hilarity of this comment, that's not really how kids learn.

- "Dad, I'd like to draw a house on this screen"

- "Ok kiddo, first we have to download stage1 tarball from FTP mirror I know the name of without looking it up"

johnisgood•22m ago

I was going to say I'd help them install Gentoo or Arch. I learned a lot myself with some help of a friend through SSH when installing and using Gentoo.

Do not pre-install, but make them part of the installation process. :P

sen•56m ago

My kids (pre-teen) have Pi400s. It lets them play around with basic graphics apps, write stories, write and print letters to family, play simple games without the kid-hostile world of modern “mainstream” gaming, watch movies from the NAS, etc.

More than enough to keep them entertained and teach them the basics.

shantara•55m ago

Fedora Atomic, maybe? I would have probably found it a bit too restrictive as a teen, but I think it’s a good choice for preventing a younger child from accidentally breaking the system, while still providing enough ability to experiment and learn stuff using distrobox

evgpbfhnr•42m ago

Breaking the system is the point! Let them break stuff, you learn when you have to fix it afterwards.

xrd•55m ago

They probably will want to play games. It's a slippery slope. But if you go that route:

Steam works amazingly well. And you can set up family controls.

Roblox works great using "Sober" I don't recommend letting them play Roblox but I'm stuck with it.

Minecraft and Curseforge work well, too.

Time Keeper Next is a great time limiting control system. If you have a little awareness of docker you can run it in a container and even access it on your phone through an admin gui. If you need help on that get my email from my profile and I'll happily share my details.

My kids 8,10,12 know how to use the command line. I'm really proud of them.

assimpleaspossi•14m ago

This is how my co-worker's son turned from a happy, energetic 8-year old into a 400 pound 20-something who does nothing but play games as soon as he comes home from work. It consumes his whole life.

croisillon•53m ago

Windows Movie Maker used to be such a gem, pity it has been discontinued! Nowadays I use Openshot on Windows

johnisgood•23m ago

OpenShot is available for Linux, too, FWIW.

nickserv•47m ago

I went with LDE Neon for both my kids. It's also what I use, I really like the KDE ecosystem, very polished experience overall.

Also it's similar enough to Windows that they don't feel completely out of touch on the school computers.

Killer app is Krita for the older one, even got him a cheap Wacom later on.

Otherwise school work, native Linux games, and YouTube. That last one with the younger one I have to keep an eye on. Honestly thinking about blocking access, we'll see.

Both like gaming, so I set up wine for them on my machine with separate accounts. Learning about email, downloads, files and folders by installing Skyrim mods (using kid friendly settings on Nexus), also an exercise in managing frustration...

Anyway everyone will be different, just set up something they'll enjoy. Already for a kid to know Linux exists is a head start.

byronic•29m ago

Seconding “YouTube ban.” I do it now at the network level. If at some point they alter parental controls to allow list channels I would consider adding it back, but the sheer quantity put forth onto the platform makes it impossible for any parent to moderate (or moderate effectively).

At least with streaming a TV show or movie there are defined breaks instead of an endless array of kid dopamine

nickserv•21m ago

Yes, that's what I'm thinking of doing, blocking directly on the router.

It was somewhat manageable before with proper education (teaching them what to avoid, time limiting), but now with shorts and AI it's becoming a cesspool.

The main reason I allow it is to show them the dangers of it, of knowing to be careful. Otherwise I feel like as soon as they get access, they'll be completely unprepared... and of course as they get older they will definitely get access.

nurettin•46m ago

Just give them a raspberry pi and show them gcompris and luanti.

microtonal•40m ago

My kids loved the power, freedom and later unexpected community this bought them.

I think it is also important to realize/point out that we do a lot of projecting and our child may have very different interests. Not saying that applies to you evolve2k, just wanted to make the general point.

I set up a Linux machine with our daughter and while it was initially ok, she did not have much interest in the power/freedom and it only became a nuisance for her. Her school/friends use PowerPoint - there is a lot of friction trying work with them in LibreOffice. She wanted to do DTP-like things several times and the Linux options are not exactly... user-friendly. Etc.

In the end we got her a Mac Mini. She can still open a terminal, use Homebrew, etc. if she ever develops an interest. Heck, she can use most free software. However, she can also do the stuff she is currently interested in much more easily. E.g., she uses Swift Publisher, which is a very simple/user-friendly DTP program, can collaborate on PowerPoint presentations when needed, etc.

First and foremost listen to what your child is interested in.

evolve2k•1m ago

Very fair. Yes you can’t force them but I still think there is value in attempting to start the Linux way which you very much did.

Sounds like you’re doing a great job and tuning in to the needs and interests of your child. Love it!

haunter•40m ago

An immutable distro, probably Fedora Kinoite https://www.fedoraproject.org/atomic-desktops/kinoite/

>In windows when a child goes searching the web for a “movie maker for windows” they are going to be in a world of hurt either finding expensive commercial options or super scammy sites promising the world.

It's funny that you use that example because the state of video editors on Windows have never been better from industry standard free options (DaVinci Resolve) to FOSS options (KDEnlive, Openshot, Shotcut, Avidemux etc).

What you describe is a Google / web / browser problem not an OS one

GTP•37m ago

The second hand desktop idea is good. But, if her parents are a bit on the nerd side as well, think how much fun they could have together with a Raspberry pi! It could be the evolution of playing Lego together.

jamesbelchamber•30m ago

Get them to install WordPress on a different second-hand computer. Other things exist to host but WordPress has a lot of resources out there, and going from bare metal to WordPress introduces a lot of staples of Linux systems administration while still being fairly easy to do.

FWIW this is what I recommend to adults wanting to get into the industry as well, I would just usually direct them from there towards automation, containerisation etc. For kids I would point out that they could host other things instead of WordPress, or even write their own..

constantcrying•28m ago

>As a tech parent I think one of the best things I did for both my son and daughter was for their first computer to help them to build and setup their own Linux computer (It was Ubuntu back then but they’ve both moved themselves to Arch these days).

Of the important things my father, who definitely is a "tech parent", did for me none of them have anything to do with him teaching me some piece of technology.

To be very frank, if the best thing you have done for your children is getting them to use Linux you are a total failure as a parent. To be fair to you, I do not believe you at all when you say this.

>Now my friend wants the same for their daughter who is 8 years old.

One of the actually most valuable thing my father did for me, definitely in terms of education outcome and career. Was getting me interested and spending time with me and explaining me things. The particulars do not matter, I can not remember them. It is totally irrelevant whether what Linux distro you use or what you teach them. What matters is that the parent is there, explains and encourages.

>Linux with free and open software is the goal and focus.

This is about an 8 year old.

miningape•26m ago

> Now my friend wants the same for their daughter who is 8 years old.

Be careful - even the most obvious things (to us) won't be to a small child. They'll need a bit of a guiding hand and/or someone to ask questions to. Linux isn't obvious and I wouldn't be too surprised if they run into hard edges at some point (sound driver stops working), without someone to actually go to for help the computer just becomes a brick.

- Someone who installed Linux on his beat-up laptop when he was 12 (*), and faced endless frustration with it. (My parents confiscated the laptop because I started hitting it - later got a Windows desktop that "just worked")

* - I don't remember if it stopped being able to run windows (hardware too weak) or, if the windows partition had corrupted itself and I couldn't afford a new copy of windows.

pembrook•26m ago

I’d start by not setting them up a Linux computer.

In both school and work it’s overwhelmingly likely they will either be asked to do things in MacOS or Windows only. Make sure they’re proficient there first.

Linux as a personal OS, regardless of how passionate you are about it, is still a hobbyist platform. If your child becomes super into computers, then you can help them dive deeper down the rabbit hole.

But I wouldn’t drop them at the bottom of the rabbit hole prematurely. Just because your kid liked listening to an AC/DC song doesn’t mean they will want to dive immediately into the world of Brutal Deathcore.

stOneskull•21m ago

antiX would be interesting, getting them used to config files..

maybe a USB stick with a few distros on it, experimenting with installing them, including dual-booting.. a mix of distros spanning debian/redhat types, and kde/gnome types.. maybe a couple of live distros on their own USB stick.. having a virtual machine in the main install and learning about installing into them..

scratch and python..

ulfbert_inc•18m ago

>How would u setup a child's first Linux computer?

preloaded with tons of stuff my kid might find cool (depends on his or her interests which nobody knows better than I do), and with completely disabled internet access if kid will be using it without my supervision.

dsr_•17m ago

These days, I would start with ZFSBootMenu and Debian Stable.

Why ZFS? So that backups are easy, snapshots are cheap, and when the inevitable happens, it takes a few minutes to reboot and roll back.

Why Debian Stable? Because it will continue to work and get security updates for years, without changing out from underneath them without notice.

I would also recommend that any computer for an 8 year old be placed in the living room or a similar easy-to-watch-over place. Kids need guidance; if they didn't, they wouldn't be kids.

Adblocking, obviously. Everyone needs that.

dismalpedigree•13m ago

I can’t support Linux as the first computer enough. Both of my boys got an Ubuntu desktop for their 8th birthday. I showed them some basics. They were motivated to figure it out. They learned how things work along the way. Also no scammy popups or notifications causing confusion or them granting access “just click yes and it goes away”.

Ununtu (non root) and timekeeper plus. I work with them when they want to install something or do updates.

They have steam, minecraft, OpenRA for games and are happy.

They create music, program arduinos, edit videos they make with friends.

reify•13m ago

I did this two years ago for a 10 year old.

I went with Linux Mint XCFE

The issue for all parents is surely online safety, especially so for our youngest.

I managed to prevent the 10 year old acccessing porn and other non child friendly sites.

change the browser to the Mullvad Browser or and librewolf

---------------------

make sure you change the DNS in network manager and the the browser.

https://mullvad.net/en/help/dns-over-https-and-dns-over-tls

I used these:

  family blocks: Ads, Trackers, Malware, Adult, Gambling
  all blocks: Ads, Trackers, Malware, Adult, Gambling, Social media

  family.dns.mulvad.net
  all.dns.mullvad.net

you really dont want an 8 year old on, facebook, X, reddit or any of the other trash sites

----------------------- search engines:

Qwant provides a safe Junior search.

https://www.qwantjunior.com/

-----------------------

It takes time to set up.

once it is set up, become a kid and search for porn, gambling etc, to see if you as an adult can find those sites. if you do, block them

to block sites just add lines like these to ublock/my filters section.

If a child does click on them they are blocked and do not open. This also works if the child opens a link from a search engine. This way also removes the proceed button that allows you to bypass the restriction.

  facebook.com##^html
  youtube.com##^html
  threads.com##^html
  instagram.com##^html
  tiktok.com##^html
  pinterest.com##^html
  twitter.com##^html
  google.com##^html
  bing.com##^html
  reddit.com##^html
  pornhub.com##^html

etc etc

for fun; set up a few aliases, so they can update from the terminal.

This is great for kids, typing update into the terminal and watching it update && upgrade

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