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

[Shlomi Fish]

On Monday 10 Jan 2011 17:18:22 Mordecha Behar wrote:
> 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. 

Out of curiousity, why didn't the very old video card work with kernels 2.6.20 
and above? Was compatibility dropped? Which video card was it? Didn't it 
support VESA mode? Finally - was it not possible to upgrade it to something 
newer and better supported?

I'm asking because old kernels tend to accumulate many security 
vulnerabilities and are not recommended.

Regards,

	Shlomi Fish

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Shlomi Fish       http://www.shlomifish.org/
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