What to tell 13 year old kids about Linux and Open Source?

Mon Jan 10 17:18:22 IST 2011

1) Most hardware elements are pretty idiot-proof. There's only one way to
plug them in, and only one place they can go.
But you can skip this step if you want. A  lot of people buy new computers
even when their old one isn't exactly broken, it's just not up to spec.
People want faster, more powerful computers, and they tend to throw away
slower, weaker ones. Ask around, I'm sure' you'll be able to turn up a
computer in good condition that is simple "too slow". Once Linux is
installed on it, that won't be a problem anymore.
2) You could pick a distribution that has very good hardware support for
most of the "standard" components. Ubuntu and Mandriva are two that spring
to mind.
3) Yes, it would be interesting. For the simple reason that they now have a
computer (or several) in their classroom that they can use. Furthermore,
there is the coolness factor. They took an old decrepit computer and turned
it into something useful, and rather powerful. All thanks to FOSS.

As to Ubuntu, I had a Pentium III with 128 MB of RAM that was running Ubuntu
for years. It recently died from simple wear and tear on the physical
components. It worked very well, faster even than my XP computer. Of course
it had a very old video card, and that prevented us from updating past
kernel 2.6.19, but still, it worked very well. We just didn't update the
kernel, or if it did update automatically we reset the boot kernel in GRUB.
(Actually in /boot/grub/menu.lst) I think the last version of Ubuntu that
ran well on it was Karmic.
DSL is fine for other things (picture viewers, dedicated internet
stations...), but for a classroom computer you're going to want something
with more oomph (not to mention it should look nice). If you can get a hold
of a computer made in the last 3 years I don't think there's any reason not
to install the most cutting edge Linux of your choice on it.

Of course you should remember that you're supposed to be giving a talk :P.
>From my experience an Ubuntu install takes around half an hour. So if you
bring the computer and the Live USB with you and install it before their
eyes, that'll give you half an hour to talk about Linux in general, and half
an hour to show them how to use Ubuntu.

On Mon, Jan 10, 2011 at 12:45 PM, Gabor Szabo <szabgab at gmail.com> wrote:

> Mordecha,
>
> That actually sounds like a brilliant idea.
>
> Maybe I could ask them to bring all kinds of spare parts of a
> computer and old computers they might have at home and we
> could try to put together one ore more new computers and
> install Linux on it.
>
> This project could be spread on several meetings as we might
> not be able to finish it within 1 hour.
>
> I am a bit afraid though that
> 1) I won't be able to handle the task - after all I have hardly
>    touched any hardware recently
> 2) What if some of the pieces are not or not well supported by Linux?
> 3) Would it be interesting in the end to have an old computer?
>
>
> BTW I am most familiar with Ubuntu as I have been using it in
> the last couple of years but I wonder if it isn't too bloated for
> old and under-powered computers? Maybe I should try to install
> DSL http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/ ?
>
> regards
>   Gabor
>
>
> 2011/1/10 Mordecha Behar <mordecha.behar at mail.huji.ac.il>:
> > Another thing I just thought of.
> > As has been correctly pointed out, kids this age are nearly always
> > end-users.
> > So why not point out the end user experience of Linux? Lots of eye-candy,
> > stability, not needing to reboot every time you install a program, the
> > simplicity of finding and installing programs (package managers), great
> > runtime on old hardware...
> > In fact, that might be a nice class or group project for them to do,
> > resurrect an old defunct computer and install Linux on it.
> > מחשב לכל ילד is a nice program, but we all know that they lack funds. How
> > cool would it be for this class to have an entire bank of computers that
> > people have thrown out and work perfectly well? Half of the computers in
> my
> > house are +6 years old and run Linux. Why not the classrooms?
> >
> > On Mon, Jan 10, 2011 at 11:29 AM, Nadav Har'El <nyh at math.technion.ac.il>
> > wrote:
> >>
> >> There have been some very good ideas in this thread (and I'm collecting
> >> them
> >> to use on my daughter when she's a little older ;-)), and I just wanted
> to
> >> add my two cents:
> >>
> >> On Mon, Jan 10, 2011, Alex Shnitman wrote about "Re: What to tell 13
> year
> >> old kids about Linux and Open Source?":
> >> > Come on, guys, kids don't give a rat's ass about what's legal and what
> >> > isn't. Even many adults don't. Those arguments may work in
> corporations,
> >> > but
> >> > certainly not in a school. Same thing about vendor lock-in: you're
> >> > talking
> >> > in adult terms here, they know nothing about it and they don't care.
> >>
> >> I agree. But it's not exactly that kids don't care what is illegal and
> >> what
> >> isn't - (most of) the same 13-year-old kids will not be shoplifting, or
> >> stealing from friends, for example - but when kids see that the *norms*
> >> are
> >> different from the *written laws*, they tend to accept the former (if
> they
> >> even know the latter). When a kid sees all kids around him are copying
> >> software, and no adult is doing anything to actively stop it, he learns
> >> that
> >> it is acceptable.
> >>
> >> > The first thing I'd stress is customizability, as Mordechay has
> >> > excellently
> >> > mentioned. "Imagine that you write code that is then used by millions
> of
> >> > people all over the world." That kind of thing talks to kids. The
> second
> >> > thing is the community aspect: you can enter chat rooms / forums and
> get
> >> > help for the software you use. And if you wrote something or became an
> >> > expert in something, people will come to you for advice. That's really
> >> > cool.
> >>
> >> I think we need to separate between two completely different types of
> kids
> >> -
> >> wanabee-programmers, and the rest of the kids.
> >>
> >> To wanabee-programmers, I'd stress the customizability, possibility to
> >> modify
> >> everything the program does, learning from other people's code,
> publishing
> >> your version to others, and so on, as well as the community aspects. You
> >> can tell them that with Linux they can do on their home computer amazing
> >> stuff like run their own servers just like the big companies do.
> >>
> >> To everyone else, I doubt these will be interesting - I doubt that 80%
> of
> >> the kids in a typical class will even consider looking at source code,
> or
> >> hang around in "geeky" forums about software. To these kids, I do
> believe
> >> that other issues can be appealing, including freeness (tell them their
> >> parents can save 1,000 shekels when buying a new computer by not buying
> >> Windows or Office), and, belive it or not, convenience (Linux
> >> distributions
> >> come with hundreds of software, that on Windows you need to install
> >> separately).
> >>
> >> You can also tell them that X% of the Internet's servers use free
> >> software,
> >> that their favorite companies like Google, Facebook or whatever use
> them,
> >> and so on.
> >>
> >> You can tell them that Linux programmers are rarer and make more money
> in
> >> the job market ;-)
> >>
> >> You can tell them about the possibility of running both Windows and
> Linux,
> >> e.g., using a live CD or a virtual machine (although the latter is
> pretty
> >> complicated).
> >>
> >> And tell us how it went!
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >> Nadav.
> >>
> >> --
> >> Nadav Har'El                        |       Monday, Jan 10 2011, 5
> Shevat
> >> 5771
> >> nyh at math.technion.ac.il
> >> |-----------------------------------------
> >> Phone +972-523-790466, ICQ 13349191 |Willpower: The ability to eat only
> >> one
> >> http://nadav.harel.org.il           |salted peanut.
>
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