Linux for Kids?

wesley@yall.theatl.social to Linux@lemmy.ml – 152 points –

I'm thinking about building a desktop with one of my kids and I would really prefer to put Linux on it. My wife is not a fan of the idea, however.

I'm wondering are there any good Linux distros/utilities for children that include parental control features and things like that? And that are easy to use for a child who has only used basic Chromebooks in the past?

For reference the child is under 12.

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I got my daughter a surface book with Archlinux on it when she turned four. She'd previously been using an ipad so I wanted something that had a touchscreen, and I installed KDE as the desktop. She learned how to use it extremely quickly, and has even started in on the commandline now that she's 5 and knows how to read. GCompris is great too.

Me and my wife haven't bothered with parental controls and instead just keep an eye on her usage, but I agree with other commenters that controlling things at the router level seems like a better bet.

that's the most r/linux thing ive ever heard

Hah, I feel like they might not approve of a Microsoft laptop? I could be wrong though :)

I hate when my 4-year-old kid lectures me about the open source software movement

You should put your foot down and tell them it's all about free software while they're under your roof; they can push open source once they're 18 and have their own place.