4d ago

Linux for a Windows & Android person (Advice needed)

I need to install an OS for someone whose first impulse upon seeing a screen is to touch it, because they are young and their first assumption is a touchscreen.

They know their way around Windows and Windows is probably tought to them at school, so Windows might actually be the smart move… but I fucking hate it.

Is ZorinOS or similar polished enough that I can leave it to someone whose tech literacy is centered around Roblox, TikTok and evading parental locks? I don't want to normalize the Windows-bullshit. But I don't want their first Linux-experience to be frustrating.

61 comments

Ok, let me rephrase this:
Your kid is too young to understand the concept of a mouse, but they arent young enough to not use Tiktok, a Social media known for killing even young adults attention time. And for some reason they are thought how to use a PC? To a 5-7 year old?
That aside, I recommend using literally Any OS and just making a guest user excluded from the sudoers file. To install new Apps, just use flatpak at user level, and for roblox theres Sober
- I would just like to say that I really appreciate everyone's contributions so far; even the little off-topic discussions.
  But you are completely misjudging the situation. When I spoke of "first assumption", said they "know their way around Windows" and stated they found ways around prior parental locks, I was actually referring to the fact that "my kid" hasn't even been born yet. We've just slipped two iPads in, one with a YouTube-Kids Elsa Gate loop and the other constantly doom scrolling TikTok and Twitter.
  I'm definitely not talking about someone who is a several years older than I was, when I got my first internet connected PC.
  Sarcasm aside; they are more than old enough, according to their actual parents. They had a phone for quite some time; same for a Windows notebook. I just happen to have a better notebook laying around, but feel like Windows is sort of shit, and I need a little help with judging if Linux is the right call.
  
  If you are not the Parent, the kid has going to have a hard time with Linux if you arent availible 24/7 for them to ask. Linux takes some getting used to, and if not even the Parents know anything about it, they are not going to be able to lock down Linux enough
  
  My guess is that if most things "just work", Linux may be fine. I mean, there's a whole second laptop available and I'm reachable most of the time. I just don't want to play support all the time.
  I'm also not that worried about locking things down. The parents can't even lock down Windows properly and have resorted to restricting internet time via a router setting. It's MAC based, and I think if the kid figures out how to change MAC addresses, they deserve a little extra Roblox time until the parents notice.
  At the moment I think I'll sit down with them and we'll set this thing up together. That way I can teach them a bit about the differences and show them cool things like ad blocking or Steam and see how they do by themselves … and then make my (hopefully final) decision.

61 comments