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For a 3 year old, probably the research focus should be on distro's that are most compatible with enabling gaming. This is not something I have kept up with, b

For a 3 year old, probably the research focus should be on distro's that are most compatible with enabling gaming. This is not something I have kept up with, but any distro that makes it easy to enable the proprietary video card drivers vs nouveau [1] and that makes it easy to install Steam would probably be the best route. I am not certain which distro best fits that requirement. Perhaps the latest Fedora. [2] My only gripe with Fedora is their latest Beta has integrated a store into the desktop and like Microsoft Windows interacts with their servers throughout desktop navigation a.k.a. Telemetry. That said, it's a shiny polished product with decent documentation and many years of battle hardening. [1] - https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/quick-docs/how-to-set-nvidia-as-primary-gpu-on-optimus-based-laptops/ https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/quick-docs/how-to-set-n... [2] - https://getfedora.org/ https://getfedora.org/

pseufaux 4y ago
That’s a good thought about the video care drivers since the primary use will be games and art apps along with a bit of video. Fedora is what I use on my personal machine, so I personally love it and I know it well.
luxuryballs 4y ago
As a lover of video games and an active game developer I have to ask… gaming for a 3 year old? Video games screwed up my brain as a kid in terms of learning delayed gratification / attention span control, and they didn’t start becoming common kids toys until I was like 8-10! Give them books and building toys but for a desktop computer (def no tablets) stick with learning file systems and just writing/drawing programs, just my opinion but I’d lay off the games until they are older. I notice a stark contrast in how my little ones behavior changes if I let them watch age appropriate TV or watch me play Switch games, even in small amounts… might seem extreme but I don’t want to set them up for a harder time through consumer oriented dopamine hacking so I’m taking what may seem like a radical approach. Especially after seeing the opposite approach consistently leading to parents putting their 7 year olds on Ritalin. Diet is hugely important as well… ok I’m done preaching hope it helps someone.
- LinuxBender 4y ago
  You bring up some good points but they did not ask me about the psychological impact nor am I an expert in this. If I were to offer my armchair commander opinion on that topic it would be to limit the amount of time the child is permitted on the system and to limit what multiplayer games are permitted to keep them away from abusive people and most importantly to be with them as much as possible and avoid the risk of the gaming platform becoming a baby-sitter. I trust in good faith that the person asking the question is a good parent and will spend as much time as possible with their child and maybe even join them in playing some of the games, as they are only a child once. There are ways to automate some usage limits in Linux/Unix. One could use PAM limits to prevent logins to/from particular times of the day/night and to limit how long one may be logged in. These limits should be explained to the child so they are not as upset when the system logs them out. Perhaps find a way to put the system to sleep so that unsaved game progress is less likely to be lost.
  - marttt 4y ago
    Re: usage limits. I've been meaning to do this -- with a friendly notification daemon that says something like "Computer is going to turn off in 5/10/15 minutes. Try to finish what you're doing; you can continue tomorrow".
    - LinuxBender 4y ago
      One could probably even call a program like mpg123 to play an mp3/wav that says this so they can hear it.

pseufaux 4y ago

That’s a good thought about the video care drivers since the primary use will be games and art apps along with a bit of video. Fedora is what I use on my personal machine, so I personally love it and I know it well.

luxuryballs 4y ago

As a lover of video games and an active game developer I have to ask… gaming for a 3 year old? Video games screwed up my brain as a kid in terms of learning delayed gratification / attention span control, and they didn’t start becoming common kids toys until I was like 8-10! Give them books and building toys but for a desktop computer (def no tablets) stick with learning file systems and just writing/drawing programs, just my opinion but I’d lay off the games until they are older. I notice a stark contrast in how my little ones behavior changes if I let them watch age appropriate TV or watch me play Switch games, even in small amounts… might seem extreme but I don’t want to set them up for a harder time through consumer oriented dopamine hacking so I’m taking what may seem like a radical approach. Especially after seeing the opposite approach consistently leading to parents putting their 7 year olds on Ritalin. Diet is hugely important as well… ok I’m done preaching hope it helps someone.

LinuxBender 4y ago
You bring up some good points but they did not ask me about the psychological impact nor am I an expert in this. If I were to offer my armchair commander opinion on that topic it would be to limit the amount of time the child is permitted on the system and to limit what multiplayer games are permitted to keep them away from abusive people and most importantly to be with them as much as possible and avoid the risk of the gaming platform becoming a baby-sitter. I trust in good faith that the person asking the question is a good parent and will spend as much time as possible with their child and maybe even join them in playing some of the games, as they are only a child once. There are ways to automate some usage limits in Linux/Unix. One could use PAM limits to prevent logins to/from particular times of the day/night and to limit how long one may be logged in. These limits should be explained to the child so they are not as upset when the system logs them out. Perhaps find a way to put the system to sleep so that unsaved game progress is less likely to be lost.
- marttt 4y ago
  Re: usage limits. I've been meaning to do this -- with a friendly notification daemon that says something like "Computer is going to turn off in 5/10/15 minutes. Try to finish what you're doing; you can continue tomorrow".
  - LinuxBender 4y ago
    One could probably even call a program like mpg123 to play an mp3/wav that says this so they can hear it.