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IMO the best way for Linux to win is to advocate it to your kids. People usually stick to whatever they learned and played with during childhood, and if we can

IMO the best way for Linux to win is to advocate it to your kids. People usually stick to whatever they learned and played with during childhood, and if we can make a whole generation Linux aware, not as a server but as a desktop, then the time of Linux desktop is foreseeable. Instead of poaching to the adults, poach it to the kids. Tell them stories of hackers, etc. We can also volunteer in schools for a few sessions of introduction to Linux.

sylens 1y ago
This is even more important now as younger generations are just given iPads and other locked down devices, to the point where they have to learn how to navigate a file system in their introductory university courses.
- spacechild1 1y ago
  > to the point where they have to learn how to navigate a file system in their introductory university courses. What happened to IT lessons at school? I had IT starting at the age of 13 onwards, and that was in the early 2000s. By the time you graduated from school, you were guaranteed to have at least basic IT skills.
  - CaptainOfCoit 1y ago
    I think those classes/lessons were added when the availability of computers were kind of so and so, not every kid had a computer at home but most adults at the time understood that computers will be used in the kids future one way or another, so they figured everyone should know it. At one point it shifted to "everyone has a computer at home" to "everyone has a computer in their pocket, and learns typing by themselves" and the classes seems to have disappeared.
    - spacechild1 1y ago
      > when the availability of computers were kind of so and so, I think in the early/mid 2000s most families already had a PC at home. At least all of my friends did. > "everyone has a computer in their pocket, and learns typing by themselves" Yeah, that seems to be the sentiment. Of course we all know this is completely wrong.
  - newdee 1y ago
    My IT lessons in the 90s were “here’s how to use spreadsheets and Microsoft office”. It wasn’t until later that I was taught programming and other more foundational concepts that would take me beyond being an office worker that knew how to format and print a letter. Fortunately, I had computers at home and my parents encouraged me to learn how they worked.
    - spacechild1 1y ago
      > My IT lessons in the 90s were “here’s how to use spreadsheets and Microsoft office”. Same for me. But these are actually useful skills and I find it strange that they wouldn't be taught anymore.
throw748494 1y ago
>People usually stick to whatever they learned and played with during childhood Any source for this? I grown on Atari, DOS and Windows. Most kids today are on mobile or consoles. Linux does not need advertising, it is by far the best option from point of hardware selection, development, gaming and ease of use.
- debugnik 1y ago
  Unless you've already got an Nvidia GPU, in which case you might encounter repeating pains. Thanks to Nvidia's Linux driver, my desktop environment breaks and hangs when it comes back from sleep, and every few days my screen starts flashing black until I reboot. I've been told the trigger may be the combination of DisplayPort and AdaptiveSync.
- velcrovan 1y ago
  I think nerds like us are more likely to experiment and make occasional drastic changes to our computing setup. And in my case I grew up during a time when there was a lot of change in the desktop OS landscape, so sticking with one OS from my childhood to adulthood wasn’t really possible (otherwise I’d still be on Microsoft BASIC and OS-9). Familiarity and “just-workitude” really are by far the most important factors for people picking OSs, and these days it’s possible to stick with one platform for decades.
- mvdtnz 1y ago
  > Linux does not need advertising, it is by far the best option from point of hardware selection, development, gaming and ease of use. Gaming? No. Hardware selection? Lol absolutely not.
microtonal 1y ago
Or if you want to make them tech capable, another possibility is to give them a cheap Mac (apparently Apple is going to release a MacBook with an A-series SoC soon). You can open a terminal and show how it works, they can explore the filesystem with Finder, but when they need to do school work, they also have access to good DTP applications (Swift Publisher is really affordable and nice for kids), Affinity Designer/Photo, etc. Our daughter initially had a Linux machine (also for the reasons you outlined). But she quickly ran into issues when doing work for school, collaborating with other kids, etc. So we gave her a Mac Mini M1. It was not very expensive, she can run many common apps (MS Office is a fact of life) and it's more secure (app sandboxing, sealed system volume, etc). But many of her skills are be transferrable to Linux if needed (in contrast to using an iPad or Android tablet).
- FirmwareBurner 1y ago
  A Linux system is a way better idea than a Mac if making your kids tech savvy is the goal.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- boilerupnc 1y ago
  My kid used an ancient HP laptop that found new life as a Hackintosh. Was rock solid for his early HS needs. Side bonus was the peer admiration he got around it.
  - microtonal 1y ago
    That’s so awesome! I started using Macs after my brother and I were dabbling with Hackintosh in 2007 (mostly just trying it for fun). Unfortunately, it didn’t work on my laptop, but after seeing Hackintosh on his, I decided to get a Mac Mini. So cool that your kid was able to use a Hackintosh in high school!
rolph 1y ago
give them a dual boot machine, tell them linux is the secret superpower partition, windows partition is so you can move amongst the normies. demonstrate how linux faithfully executes your commands when windows tells you its too dangerous or insecure.
Fire-Dragon-DoL 1y ago
Agree It drives me nuts that at school they give them tablet rather than pcs. All the work happens on pcs, not tablets. My kids have kubuntu on some old laptops and will have linux everywhere. Hopefully it is ok to maintain that,I'm afraid of school forcing incompatible software

sylens 1y ago

This is even more important now as younger generations are just given iPads and other locked down devices, to the point where they have to learn how to navigate a file system in their introductory university courses.

spacechild1 1y ago
> to the point where they have to learn how to navigate a file system in their introductory university courses. What happened to IT lessons at school? I had IT starting at the age of 13 onwards, and that was in the early 2000s. By the time you graduated from school, you were guaranteed to have at least basic IT skills.
- CaptainOfCoit 1y ago
  I think those classes/lessons were added when the availability of computers were kind of so and so, not every kid had a computer at home but most adults at the time understood that computers will be used in the kids future one way or another, so they figured everyone should know it. At one point it shifted to "everyone has a computer at home" to "everyone has a computer in their pocket, and learns typing by themselves" and the classes seems to have disappeared.
  - spacechild1 1y ago
    > when the availability of computers were kind of so and so, I think in the early/mid 2000s most families already had a PC at home. At least all of my friends did. > "everyone has a computer in their pocket, and learns typing by themselves" Yeah, that seems to be the sentiment. Of course we all know this is completely wrong.
- newdee 1y ago
  My IT lessons in the 90s were “here’s how to use spreadsheets and Microsoft office”. It wasn’t until later that I was taught programming and other more foundational concepts that would take me beyond being an office worker that knew how to format and print a letter. Fortunately, I had computers at home and my parents encouraged me to learn how they worked.
  - spacechild1 1y ago
    > My IT lessons in the 90s were “here’s how to use spreadsheets and Microsoft office”. Same for me. But these are actually useful skills and I find it strange that they wouldn't be taught anymore.

throw748494 1y ago

>People usually stick to whatever they learned and played with during childhood Any source for this? I grown on Atari, DOS and Windows. Most kids today are on mobile or consoles. Linux does not need advertising, it is by far the best option from point of hardware selection, development, gaming and ease of use.

debugnik 1y ago
Unless you've already got an Nvidia GPU, in which case you might encounter repeating pains. Thanks to Nvidia's Linux driver, my desktop environment breaks and hangs when it comes back from sleep, and every few days my screen starts flashing black until I reboot. I've been told the trigger may be the combination of DisplayPort and AdaptiveSync.
velcrovan 1y ago
I think nerds like us are more likely to experiment and make occasional drastic changes to our computing setup. And in my case I grew up during a time when there was a lot of change in the desktop OS landscape, so sticking with one OS from my childhood to adulthood wasn’t really possible (otherwise I’d still be on Microsoft BASIC and OS-9). Familiarity and “just-workitude” really are by far the most important factors for people picking OSs, and these days it’s possible to stick with one platform for decades.
mvdtnz 1y ago
> Linux does not need advertising, it is by far the best option from point of hardware selection, development, gaming and ease of use. Gaming? No. Hardware selection? Lol absolutely not.

microtonal 1y ago

Or if you want to make them tech capable, another possibility is to give them a cheap Mac (apparently Apple is going to release a MacBook with an A-series SoC soon). You can open a terminal and show how it works, they can explore the filesystem with Finder, but when they need to do school work, they also have access to good DTP applications (Swift Publisher is really affordable and nice for kids), Affinity Designer/Photo, etc. Our daughter initially had a Linux machine (also for the reasons you outlined). But she quickly ran into issues when doing work for school, collaborating with other kids, etc. So we gave her a Mac Mini M1. It was not very expensive, she can run many common apps (MS Office is a fact of life) and it's more secure (app sandboxing, sealed system volume, etc). But many of her skills are be transferrable to Linux if needed (in contrast to using an iPad or Android tablet).

FirmwareBurner 1y ago
A Linux system is a way better idea than a Mac if making your kids tech savvy is the goal.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
boilerupnc 1y ago
My kid used an ancient HP laptop that found new life as a Hackintosh. Was rock solid for his early HS needs. Side bonus was the peer admiration he got around it.
- microtonal 1y ago
  That’s so awesome! I started using Macs after my brother and I were dabbling with Hackintosh in 2007 (mostly just trying it for fun). Unfortunately, it didn’t work on my laptop, but after seeing Hackintosh on his, I decided to get a Mac Mini. So cool that your kid was able to use a Hackintosh in high school!

rolph 1y ago

give them a dual boot machine, tell them linux is the secret superpower partition, windows partition is so you can move amongst the normies. demonstrate how linux faithfully executes your commands when windows tells you its too dangerous or insecure.

Fire-Dragon-DoL 1y ago

Agree It drives me nuts that at school they give them tablet rather than pcs. All the work happens on pcs, not tablets. My kids have kubuntu on some old laptops and will have linux everywhere. Hopefully it is ok to maintain that,I'm afraid of school forcing incompatible software