[Beowulf] An OT patented rgb editorial rant, skip if you like...

[Chris Samuel]

On Wednesday 24 January 2007 8:17 pm, Vincent Diepeveen wrote:

> As linux is total unusuable by the average grammar- and highschool kid,
> windows is the only alternative to them.

Fortunately someone forgot to tell the ones in Australia about that!

Some quotes from people I know:

# My daughter turns seven this weekend. She started school last year.  She is
# using my FreeBSD/Gnome2 driven laptop. 


# My 13yo nephew decided to try out Linux on his Mac a couple of months ago,
# so I downloaded him a Ubuntu disc and send him home with it with the promise
# that next time I'm over there I'll help him install.
[...]
# The next time I visit he's not only partitioned his HD and installed Ubunutu
# he's gone to a Ubunutu forum and found and followed instructions to 
# <CRTL>-<ALT> to a console and edit xorg.conf (using vi!) to overcome a DRI 
# incompatability with his old Mac which left him with a blank screen on
# bootup.  


# My daughter (now 13) grew up on a diet of OS9/OSX, Windows and Linux.
# 
# Now she has Ubuntu on her blueberry iMac as Mac OSX was a bit slow and I 
# was not going to pay for Mac programs. (she won the iMac) 

and my favourite:

# Well actually, my son with using Linux to surf the web, and play some 
# games from when he was 2. 
# 
# This was a stock install of Debian with the KDE Desktop. I just put the 
# icons on the desktop, and had it auto login for him. (he had some  
# trouble with a user name and a secure password). 


If we expect children of that age to learn multiple languages (something I've 
never managed to do, I can't even speak my own native tongue of Welsh) then 
why should they find different computer systems any more difficult ?

cheers,
Chris
-- 
 Christopher Samuel - (03)9925 4751 - VPAC Deputy Systems Manager
 Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing http://www.vpac.org/
 Bldg 91, 110 Victoria Street, Carlton South, VIC 3053, Australia