How would u setup a child's first Linux computer?

We were gifted our old work laptops. My partner and I work for the same place. She gave hers to the mother in law after I wiped Windows and put Linux on it.

I gave mine to my son. I figured that my son might want to use the touch screen I went with Gnome because it seemed a little more touch friendly. I told myself it doesn't matter because he is 8 and I can always reinstall.

I chose Debian (Stable) so I wouldn't have to deal with keeping it updated, put a root password to prevent them from going crazy with installing stuff.

I will have to put Scratch on it someday, for the moment he cares about the following:

- the LEGO website to look at instructions - the music player to listen to soundtracks from his favourite games - MyPaint for making drawings

He is starting to figure out the idea of folders, deleting things, undo, etc., but hasn't asked for any other software or even games yet.

I am a professor and would like for my son to learn about word processors, spreadsheets, programming, etc.. If he ever asks, I will give him the root password and let him browse the repos. Right now, I'm just happy to see him enjoy it without doing what lots of his friends do: sit in front of YouTube all afternoon.

I would recommend installing Scratch[1] - it's a programming language designed for kids from 8yrs old onwards. I would recommend pairing it with a Raspberry Pi, as you can do fun real-world physical stuff with using Scratch, and I think kids can find that very interesting. Eg, start with a simple program to turn LED lights on and off, programming buttons, playing sounds etc. Eventually this could lead to making simple games or other programs. Regardless, would highly recommend getting a Raspberry Pi as its just so much fun using it to interact with the physical world and getting to learn actual electronics.

[1] https://scratch.mit.edu/parents/

I got my nephews a raspberry pi for their first computer. I tried gifting an old laptop, but that was rejected my the parents as “too much”, so I went the Pi route… first with a Kano Kit (which I think is no defunct) and later with a Pi 400.

The Kano was nice, because it was built for kids and had some guided stuff to help get them into it with various software and hardware to play around with.

With the Pi 400 it was stock Raspbian. The kid wasn’t sure where to begin. While it came with a book geared toward kids, I don’t know that he read it. I was trying to find a way to show him around to stuff he might think is fun, without it seeming boring over overwhelming, but I didn’t feel it went that well. I was also living 6 hours away at the time, so there weren’t regular visits for questions or to help things along, and the parents didn’t know anything about Linux.

Ultimately, I don’t think it inspired them as much as I was hoping. All they actually wanted was something to play Minecraft on, and the Pi edition was a very compromised experience for Minecraft. The Kano did have a mode to let people use Scratch type programming to automate aspects of building, which I thought was really cool, but it didn’t totally seem to click… though I did see some limited use after a couple years.

I think not having someone in the house who can guide and field questions really hindered the ability for them to really thrive on Linux. It would probably be worth including a series of lessons to ramp up their skills and knowledge. Doing something like that was difficult for me due to the distance and also not so much parental support on the idea of kids on computers. I was swimming against the current a little with those gifts, because I thought it was important they get access to the main tool they are likely to use throughout their life.

Endless OS on a ex corporate box/laptop could be a good option.

https://distrowatch.com/table-mobile.php?distribution=endles...

My kids loved the power, freedom and later unexpected community this bought them.

I think it is also important to realize/point out that we do a lot of projecting and our child may have very different interests. Not saying that applies to you evolve2k, just wanted to make the general point.

I set up a Linux machine with our daughter and while it was initially ok, she did not have much interest in the power/freedom and it only became a nuisance for her. Her school/friends use PowerPoint - there is a lot of friction trying work with them in LibreOffice. She wanted to do DTP-like things several times and the Linux options are not exactly... user-friendly. Etc.

In the end we got her a Mac Mini. She can still open a terminal, use Homebrew, etc. if she ever develops an interest. Heck, she can use most free software. However, she can also do the stuff she is currently interested in much more easily. E.g., she uses Swift Publisher, which is a very simple/user-friendly DTP program, can collaborate on PowerPoint presentations when needed, etc.

First and foremost listen to what your child is interested in.

An immutable distro, probably Fedora Kinoite https://www.fedoraproject.org/atomic-desktops/kinoite/

>In windows when a child goes searching the web for a “movie maker for windows” they are going to be in a world of hurt either finding expensive commercial options or super scammy sites promising the world.

It's funny that you use that example because the state of video editors on Windows have never been better from industry standard free options (DaVinci Resolve) to FOSS options (KDEnlive, Openshot, Shotcut, Avidemux etc).

What you describe is a Google / web / browser problem not an OS one

I can’t support Linux as the first computer enough. Both of my boys got an Ubuntu desktop for their 8th birthday. I showed them some basics. They were motivated to figure it out. They learned how things work along the way. Also no scammy popups or notifications causing confusion or them granting access “just click yes and it goes away”.

Ununtu (non root) and timekeeper plus. I work with them when they want to install something or do updates.

They have steam, minecraft, OpenRA for games and are happy.

They create music, program arduinos, edit videos they make with friends.

These days, I would start with ZFSBootMenu and Debian Stable.

Why ZFS? So that backups are easy, snapshots are cheap, and when the inevitable happens, it takes a few minutes to reboot and roll back.

Why Debian Stable? Because it will continue to work and get security updates for years, without changing out from underneath them without notice.

I would also recommend that any computer for an 8 year old be placed in the living room or a similar easy-to-watch-over place. Kids need guidance; if they didn't, they wouldn't be kids.

Adblocking, obviously. Everyone needs that.

I went with LDE Neon for both my kids. It's also what I use, I really like the KDE ecosystem, very polished experience overall.

Also it's similar enough to Windows that they don't feel completely out of touch on the school computers.

Killer app is Krita for the older one, even got him a cheap Wacom later on.

Otherwise school work, native Linux games, and YouTube. That last one with the younger one I have to keep an eye on. Honestly thinking about blocking access, we'll see.

Both like gaming, so I set up wine for them on my machine with separate accounts. Learning about email, downloads, files and folders by installing Skyrim mods (using kid friendly settings on Nexus), also an exercise in managing frustration...

Anyway everyone will be different, just set up something they'll enjoy. Already for a kid to know Linux exists is a head start.

> Now my friend wants the same for their daughter who is 8 years old.

Be careful - even the most obvious things (to us) won't be to a small child. They'll need a bit of a guiding hand and/or someone to ask questions to. Linux isn't obvious and I wouldn't be too surprised if they run into hard edges at some point (sound driver stops working), without someone to actually go to for help the computer just becomes a brick.

- Someone who installed Linux on his beat-up laptop when he was 12 (*), and faced endless frustration with it. (My parents confiscated the laptop because I started hitting it - later got a Windows desktop that "just worked")

* - I don't remember if it stopped being able to run windows (hardware too weak) or, if the windows partition had corrupted itself and I couldn't afford a new copy of windows.

I'd give them a stack of Slackware floppies and half the manual.

>How would u setup a child's first Linux computer?

preloaded with tons of stuff my kid might find cool (depends on his or her interests which nobody knows better than I do), and with completely disabled internet access if kid will be using it without my supervision.

My kids (pre-teen) have Pi400s. It lets them play around with basic graphics apps, write stories, write and print letters to family, play simple games without the kid-hostile world of modern “mainstream” gaming, watch movies from the NAS, etc.

More than enough to keep them entertained and teach them the basics.

Fedora Atomic, maybe? I would have probably found it a bit too restrictive as a teen, but I think it’s a good choice for preventing a younger child from accidentally breaking the system, while still providing enough ability to experiment and learn stuff using distrobox

I did this two years ago for a 10 year old.

I went with Linux Mint XCFE

The issue for all parents is surely online safety, especially so for our youngest.

I managed to prevent the 10 year old acccessing porn and other non child friendly sites.

change the browser to the Mullvad Browser or and librewolf

---------------------

make sure you change the DNS in network manager and the the browser.

https://mullvad.net/en/help/dns-over-https-and-dns-over-tls

I used these:

  family blocks: Ads, Trackers, Malware, Adult, Gambling
  all blocks: Ads, Trackers, Malware, Adult, Gambling, Social media

  family.dns.mulvad.net
  all.dns.mullvad.net

you really dont want an 8 year old on, facebook, X, reddit or any of the other trash sites

----------------------- search engines:

Qwant provides a safe Junior search.

https://www.qwantjunior.com/

-----------------------

It takes time to set up.

once it is set up, become a kid and search for porn, gambling etc, to see if you as an adult can find those sites. if you do, block them

to block sites just add lines like these to ublock/my filters section.

If a child does click on them they are blocked and do not open. This also works if the child opens a link from a search engine. This way also removes the proceed button that allows you to bypass the restriction.

  facebook.com##^html
  youtube.com##^html
  threads.com##^html
  instagram.com##^html
  tiktok.com##^html
  pinterest.com##^html
  twitter.com##^html
  google.com##^html
  bing.com##^html
  reddit.com##^html
  pornhub.com##^html

etc etc

for fun; set up a few aliases, so they can update from the terminal.

This is great for kids, typing update into the terminal and watching it update && upgrade

Im also interested in this, so happy to hear any experience!

In my situation i need some type of "remote admin capability", since we are separated :-(

Windows Movie Maker used to be such a gem, pity it has been discontinued! Nowadays I use Openshot on Windows

The second hand desktop idea is good. But, if her parents are a bit on the nerd side as well, think how much fun they could have together with a Raspberry pi! It could be the evolution of playing Lego together.

I’d start by not setting them up a Linux computer.

In both school and work it’s overwhelmingly likely they will either be asked to do things in MacOS or Windows only. Make sure they’re proficient there first.

Linux as a personal OS, regardless of how passionate you are about it, is still a hobbyist platform. If your child becomes super into computers, then you can help them dive deeper down the rabbit hole.

But I wouldn’t drop them at the bottom of the rabbit hole prematurely. Just because your kid liked listening to an AC/DC song doesn’t mean they will want to dive immediately into the world of Brutal Deathcore.

>As a tech parent I think one of the best things I did for both my son and daughter was for their first computer to help them to build and setup their own Linux computer (It was Ubuntu back then but they’ve both moved themselves to Arch these days).

Of the important things my father, who definitely is a "tech parent", did for me none of them have anything to do with him teaching me some piece of technology.

To be very frank, if the best thing you have done for your children is getting them to use Linux you are a total failure as a parent. To be fair to you, I do not believe you at all when you say this.

>Now my friend wants the same for their daughter who is 8 years old.

One of the actually most valuable thing my father did for me, definitely in terms of education outcome and career. Was getting me interested and spending time with me and explaining me things. The particulars do not matter, I can not remember them. It is totally irrelevant whether what Linux distro you use or what you teach them. What matters is that the parent is there, explains and encourages.

>Linux with free and open software is the goal and focus.

This is about an 8 year old.

antiX would be interesting, getting them used to config files..

maybe a USB stick with a few distros on it, experimenting with installing them, including dual-booting.. a mix of distros spanning debian/redhat types, and kde/gnome types.. maybe a couple of live distros on their own USB stick.. having a virtual machine in the main install and learning about installing into them..

scratch and python..

Just give them a raspberry pi and show them gcompris and luanti.

I would put your entire house behind a custom DNS relay you control, like a PiHole. Use that to eliminate access to advertisements, pornography, some walware, and social media.

I would also consider use of Gentoo as your Linux distribution to force learning about building packages and command line. I would avoid Arch as that might be too much of a challenge.

For me the goal would be forcing them to learn how this stuff works. I would emphasize scripting in the shell like bash scripts, JavaScript via node, Python, and possibly even Perl. This will take a lot of guidance to get this started because they will need some real world use cases about why they immediately benefit.

Once you get the OS finally set up create an ISO of it and put it on both a thumb drive and home file server. Give the kiddo root access to their own computer and let them really break stuff because you can restore from backup

Edit:

Immediately downvoted. This comment apparently caused a nerd god to shed a tear.

They probably will want to play games. It's a slippery slope. But if you go that route:

Steam works amazingly well. And you can set up family controls.

Roblox works great using "Sober" I don't recommend letting them play Roblox but I'm stuck with it.

Minecraft and Curseforge work well, too.

Time Keeper Next is a great time limiting control system. If you have a little awareness of docker you can run it in a container and even access it on your phone through an admin gui. If you need help on that get my email from my profile and I'll happily share my details.

My kids 8,10,12 know how to use the command line. I'm really proud of them.

Get them to install WordPress on a different second-hand computer. Other things exist to host but WordPress has a lot of resources out there, and going from bare metal to WordPress introduces a lot of staples of Linux systems administration while still being fairly easy to do.

FWIW this is what I recommend to adults wanting to get into the industry as well, I would just usually direct them from there towards automation, containerisation etc. For kids I would point out that they could host other things instead of WordPress, or even write their own..

Check out Sugar Labs and SugarOS for a very very basic experience

You might look at ZorinOS or Linux Mint. Mint is very easy to use, I was able to get my elderly mother to use it. It has a software store and built in automatic backups.

Zorin has some built in features to support Windows software pretty easily I understand, but I'm not sure if that's through wine or a VM or what.

You can test them out in your browser thru the website below and see if it fits what you're looking for.

https://distrosea.com/

There are both practical and philosophical aspects to this. Practically, you might want a somewhat locked down solution with the root account locked and the ability to wipe and reinstall remotely. Are you and your friend up for that? If kiddo barfs the system (they're kids, they will, and it's ok!) your friend is gonna need to be up and running quick. PXE boot, kickstart, recovery USB stick, etc.

Before investing time you might also get a several distros on live USB sticks, boot each one up with the kid and parent, and see which one they like best before you install it. Make the kid part of the process.

Depending on the age of the child, make the computer discoverable. The full app store might be too much for younger children (mummy what's a flatpak?) But you might preload a "basic" and an "intermediate" app, eg Minecraft and scratch and then a (simple!!) Python IDE. And put them in discoverable, kid friendly places on the start menu.

Games. Lots of games. Both for their fun value and for teaching the motor skills of mouse and keyboard. Curiosity apps like Google earth.

For older kids, compatibility with their friends is important so make sure that things like LibreOffice, chat etc Just Work. No 13 year old wants to be the Odd Kid with the Bizarro Parent Computer. You can involve them in thinking about what it means to have choice in computing and to not just be a consumer, but they're still kids facing natural social pressures.

I could go on all day. One last point. After the thing is all set up and has been running for a few weeks, check in with the child and parent. What do they like? What do they not? And fix those issues.

I made sure to expose my kids to Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. They would use Linux for a bit, but ended up on Windows for games and Mac OS for media. Over the years, though, as Windows has gone EOL on their hardware or they have been forced into Windows 11, Linux has come back.

My oldest now has mint on her laptop and Bazzite/W11 dual booting her desktop. This was her own choice, and she did the setups herself.

My youngest is now almost an adult, but I went through the same thing that you are doing now about 15 years ago, before the prevalence of smartphones. You have a lot more options now, especially with cheap hardware which is well supported by Linux.

    * I picked up a tangerine iMac, and managed to install OS X on it.  I had to install on a G4 tower first and move the disk over. This machine was not online, and it let them play games like Alphabet Express, etc, without the slings / arrows of the Internet.
    * The educational thinkpad / lenovo laptops were built like tanks and supported Linux well. These were online, so I put them behind my own DNS resolver so that I could block some websites like Roblox, Discord, etc.
    * Scratch was well received, but you have to watch the online interactions.

When they are older, let them install Linux and give them full control and root access. Let them break it and try to fix it -- if it's too far broken they can just reinstall.

If they're not into tinkering, or not into tinkering yet, consider an immutable distribution like Kinoite, Aurora, or Bluefin. It is difficult for them to break things

Don't expect them to dive in and never leave the Linux ecosystem, an important lesson is "the right tool for the job". If they know that it is an option, they can always choose it.

I might be a bit odd in that I've been using Linux as my primary desktop since 1997, so the kids have seen it around for their entire lives.

First, it is really nice to see how many people use and know Linux and care about their kids being safe and care to teach them how to learn computer and programming.

Second, for such young age, you still need to manage the pc. So Manjaro with Plasma is my choice.

The software to install is your choice, because it really depends on what they will do, but Minecraft and other Minecraf-clones is a must and LibreOffice for their works.

Install LibreWolf with uBlock Origin, for their default browser. Keep Pi-Hole as the default DNS server and if you or them don't have one, buy a Raspberry PI and install one. That is a critical step. Best 70 bucks you will ever spend.

I set up Scratch for my daughter but she ended up mostly playing games (Minecraft and Super Tux are her favorite). She did pick up some computer skills though. For example she has pretty good understanding of files and directories - something that most kids struggle with in mobile-first era. I don’t allow internet access. She is too young for that.

I’d lock a bunch of parts in a closet and tell the kid he’s not allowed to use it. Worked pretty well for me.

Please don't inflict Gnome upon them.

I won't give my kids a Linux PC. It will be either Windows or macOS, something that just works.

I started with Red Hat 6 (not RHEL) as a kid, because it was what was included with the book on Linux that I was gifted. Some time around 2000, I was given some retired beige powermac G3 desktops, and I switched to Debian for its PowerPC port. I've been with Debian ever since.

So maybe pick something with the realization that they may stick with it for decades. :)

I also kept Windows on dual boot so I could play UT99 with friends. The social aspect is also important. My son is comfortable using our Debian machines, but also has Windows on his primary desktop so he can play Roblox and Minecraft Bedrock with school friends. I wouldn't want him to lose that.

This is such a weird thing to read. You try to project your ideas on the kids, thinking that is the best thing to do. Let them be.

I learned Linux when I was like 13 or 14 and not because my father told me. He didn't know much about computers in early 2000/late 90ties.

The curiosity, the desire to learn, the need to set up my own isp, the need to start to make money, the curiosity of how html, php and other stuff worked let me to Linux.

Teach them how to be curious and feed that curiosity, the rest will happen.

And if they choose Mac over Linux, just get of their way, otherwise they will rebel.

I setup Linux Mint on an old HP laptop for my 7 year old. Things jist worked out of the gate. She doesn't use it for much else other than Roblox (Sober), Minecraft, YouTube, and OBS (to record videos - NOT stream), but it's teaching her how to use the keyboard and mouse and navigate by using something other than touch on a tablet. It also teaches her the basics of window managemen: minimizing, maximizing, putting them side-by-side, which has been a big adjustment but she's quickly gaining proficiency.

Cheap Chromebook. Kids are hard on stuff

A full KDE install, with all its apps.

Easy: Steam deck for christmas.

I set up one with Ubuntu for my seven year old.

1. It's in the living room next to an SNES and an N64.

2. I showed her vscode, did a short HTML tutorial, and printed out some HTML cheat sheet.

3. Some modest games.

4. No YouTube or social.

Most of the buzzwords are not important (power, freedom) but I want something "unrefined". That is, a little bit of the 1980s, 90s "neat creative toy" experience but nothing with a Recommender Engine. No "digital crack".

As an entertainment product, it's definitely 100% inferior to modern software, but you actually don't want it to "win" a contest against:

1. yourself

2. other children

3. healthy activities

Recommenders and modern games are really strong. Do not invite strong, self-interested parties to compete for your child's time and life against yourself, their siblings, their friends, their neighborhood and their own developing bodies.

Common pattern: Wake up; play one cup of Mario Kart 64; leave it behind and go outside for ten hours. Or play it together. A cute little nice thing in its little proper place.

My main advice here is that you need to tailor this to the individual child. What will turn one kid on to free computing, will cause another to think of Linux forever after as "that annoying thing which I was forced to use, when I didn't have a choice in the matter", and that's probably the opposite of what you want; it will associate "Linux" in their mind with not having a choice. What is this 8-year old girl interested in?

My 13 year old came to me asking for Linux because of steam. He had heard of people moving to steam on Linux instead of upgrading to windows11. So if your child is into gaming show them steam on Linux and at least they’ll use it to play games. Then from there you can ease them into Linux itself while having steam+games to keep up the usage and interest.

Just take it slow, I pushed the console a little too hard on my 13 year old. He now refers to it as the “black box of despair” hah.

Not sure why a full desktop required, perhaps a Raspberry pi 5 16gb, the pi 500+ or any other mini pc or a cheap chromebook would be enough to start, obviously depends on the kid's interests

The reason I started with Linux when I was 9yo (1999) is because we bought a computer and PC Magazine gave away a CD with Corel Linux. So I did what obviously must have been done... thankfully the disk came damaged, otherwise my lawyer dad would have learned the importance of making backups XD.

So, I would suggest: try to get a throwaway computer, give the kid it and an USB with Linux and let them alone. Do not force anything, just give them the tools and a gentle push. Let curiosity take the wheel and be prepared to answer a lot of questions.

We were hacking library computers as a kid to access blocked sites. If you put a good enough reward behind almost any OS a kid will figure it out

i suppose the ideal would be a working device to browse the internet, a usb stick and a pointer to the arch install wiki.

turning things on their head, i got started myself with coherent floppies borrowed from a friend and then later slackware linux downloaded off some ftp site i read about on usenet.

i have vague memories of downloading mint for the atari st and maybe something about it's c compiler, but not much.

These threads always come across to me as “how do I get my kid to be exactly like me and enjoy my interests?”

> Linux with free and open software is the goal and focus.

Notice the goal and focus has nothing to do with the kids and their learning and enrichment.

Debian, XFCE. It'll be easy to use through point-and-click, decent hardware support, and the local nerds will almost certainly be able to reverse any software issues.

Kids commonly enjoy drawing, so it's likely a good idea to install Krita, which I'm not so sure is in the repos and might require a bit of imposition of hands.

Libreoffice will be installed by default, one might want to switch it out for something else for whatever reason.

The big question for me is how to give a child an experience that builds an accurate mental model of what a computer is and what software is. This was easier back in the day (like, Apple IIe times) when you ran one program at a time and if you didn't interact with it, it sat there, inert. (Yes I realize there is always some steady-state physical process going on, e.g. the pulsing of the clock-crystal, refreshing DRAM, etc. But I'm talking about software.) There is something beautiful and....solid about running a single process running in immediate mode on a simple CPU.

Contrast this with a modern experience. There are hundreds of inscrutable processes running, constantly talking to the network, to disk, doing who-knows-what. What does "software" mean on a modern machine? Software runs the gamut from a command line one-shot tool, to an invisible daemon, to a desktop app with a window, or multiple windows, to something hosted in a browser, to something hosted by something hosted in a browser. How can you build a clear mental model amidst so much noise, clutter and (both UI and runtime) heterogeneity?

In the same why "phylogeny recapitulates ontogeny" I'd argue the correct computer for a kid is a single process box with either hard-coded programs or a floppy-like experience (e.g. SD card "floppies). Given all of this, the perfect kids computer system is an HDMI TV dongle that runs an Apple IIe emulator, Logo, and a handful of retro games, and an SD card slot for other programs (prepped by the parent). No wifi or internet, bluetooth for connecting a keyboard, and no mouse.

We set my son up with a linux computer when he was 9 - he was always dragging broken electronics home off the street, so when he found an old beat up thinkpad we managed to get it running with a little tenderness and linux mint! He's been on linux ever since, constantly upgrading computers by getting second hand/free laptops (it helps that his uncle works in IT and can grab a nice Dell or two now and again). It's always fun to put linux on a new machine! In any case, for him it has been great - the desktops are super customizable. Like everyone who gets into linux, it's been fun for him to install pretty TUIs and silly command line interfaces (bob ross quotes was a recent one). There are so many fun hacking tutorials on youtube. Lots of hours on kdenlive and blender. When he was younger he LOVED minetest, which is a hackable version of minecraft. Some other commenters have said the libreoffice is a big issue for people making the switch. Obviously not a big deal for an 8 year old! But my kid is about to go into highschool now. His school uses google classroom for everything so it's still not an issue. so many games that kids play are just in the browser? thankfully my son thinks fortnite and roblox are stupid ways to spend his time. it seems like if they really _need_ to _game_ its another issue, but that shouldn't be a problem for 8 year olds?

There are have been so many benefits. He's been a great touch typer from a young age (compared to his peers especially, who mostly used phones). I mean, being on linux exposes you to using the command line, which makes you _want_ to hack, so he's learned about network. You also avoid the barrage of ads that microsoft is currently assaulting the rest of the world with in their start menu.

I wonder at what age they start getting upset that they dont have what all the other kids have. The peer pressure on conformity I think is still strong. thought not explicitly stated.

I have seen older children cry that they dont have an iPhone or they dont have the latest iPhone, or in a different region, that they dont have Android and of course the latest Android

These were older than 7 to be sure, but not sure when it starts.

you can set your kid up to be independent and a FOSS influencer but I dont think that always works.

I have a 9-yo. We experimented with time limits &c, but that just leads to endless discussions on the size and applicability if thise limits.

Now he has a mostly-airgapped Thinkpad (with music, kiwix, music-experimantation stuff, programming things, and onlyoffice), and doesn't know the ipad's passcode.

The laptop has nftables set up so that only an ssh connection to my laptop works, which I use to update it, add content, and occasionally unblock it, when necessary.

For a child that age I would definitely install some educational software. GCompris and KGeography for a start.

I would look for things that fit the child's interests rather than deciding a "mini-curriculum" in advance.

For my toddler's first desktop, I started with a simple collaborative setup project. Nothing at all fancy: had them write a scheduler, MMU, etc. Holding off on network stack and drivers until they're a late teen, though.

I would install Mint with XFCE so the kid can learn what a traditional GUI looks like, and the benefits.

Assist them with installing the interesting programs, from Inkscape to Celestia to Geany and Python.

But first you’ll have to decide what to do about youtube. Most kids won’t do anything else once they find it. Keep them away from adults as well. Probably no internet at first.

Get the Raspberry Pi 5 with 8GB (or more if you care). Get the RasPiKey [1] for faster storage (compared to SD cards), without needing to get an SSD. Just use the Raspberry Pi OS.

Re: software setup, curriculum etc.. there are so many resources that target the Raspberry Pi that you can choose something that the child finds interesting.

You can do a desktop computer build if/when they outgrow the Raspberry Pi.

[1] https://www.uugear.com/product/raspikey-plug-and-play-emmc-m...

I really don't see the value of getting a child started with Linux unless you are trying to push them into direction of being a developer, but even there I'm not sure how much sense that makes here in 2025.

If you want an alternative to Windows, then a Chromebook might be a good choice since this is what they will probably be using at school, and there are plenty of free online tools for learning to program, doing 3-D modelling, etc if they are really into it.

This reeks of a weird parent trying to make their kids weird. Kids can learn so much more about computers when not wasting time yak shaving some Linux stupidity.

Their first "Linux" computers were Android (that's based on Linux, right?) and Chromebook.

I honestly don't know if they've ever touched a PC or Mac, (except for the ones we, as parents, have.) They learn how to use them in school.

If they're interested in geeky stuff, I'll show them how to use them. Otherwise, it's important to recognize that "Linux" is often a combination of politics and hobby.

don’t give your kid sudo

i would teach them to use arch linux.

Same way you teach kids to swim! Drop them into run level 3 and show them the man pages.

I really like the idea and I wish I was introduced to Linux too as a kid! (although I did eventually get into it myself when I was 13)

Linux has a really steep learning curve for people who have only learned Windows at school or are used to the touch-based interface Chromebooks and smartphones/tablets provide. It can certainly be overwhelming for a kid who just wants to work on a school project or game with friends, so you'll need to maintain a delicate balance if you try to make this work.

If I was considering this for my kids, I'd try to give them something as friendly as possible. No terminals or writing code at all, unless they actually get interested and start asking you about how the computer works. Sit down together and teach them how to responsibly use the internet, protect their privacy and find free software.

Try to make the experience interactive and let them know that they can customize it however they want and help them do so. I always found Windows and macOS very limiting in that sense as a child and my only options were downloading sketchy apps or writing my own terrible scripts (I remember trying to animate my wallpaper on Windows with Python...).

It's also very important to ensure they're covered for schoolwork and any gaming needs. I won't recommend Libreoffice here, Office online or in a VM will be a much better experience and Proton is amazing at gaming on Linux these days (although if you've selected low-end hardware it may be worth considering a dedicated game console).

I generally think most people will appreciate Linux if they give it a try. People just tend to be negative because they've been taught to stay inside the closed ecosystem of big OS vendors and closed, user-hostile software. Once you experience freedom, there's no going back!

Good luck with your project!

EDIT: An important downside I forgot to mention is that there is practically no way to set screen-time or app limits, or block certain websites which is something important to have at least in the beginning when teaching responsible computer use. For those who have tried this, what's your approach?

My son has his own linux account. He made an absolute mess of everything he could drag around on the desktop, just for fun. Every time I'm in there, the KDE start menu pops out of some other weird place, not even at the border of a screen anymore. Plus, we seem to have some kind of mass xeyes invasion going on there. It makes troubleshooting anything interesting, at least.

He recently learned there are other computers running Windows, which he hates because of the ads.

I would ensure it is easily reimageable and restorable to a known good state.