A. Sundararajan's Weblog

A tale of two operating systems for kids..

When I introduced computers to my kids, as like many other kids they started with games on the net. Mostly playing simple games like tom-and-jerry chase, bob the builder etc. My mother tongue is Tamil and so I came across the kids section of the Tamil Virtual University site.

Then, I started experimenting with Squeak and EToys. Later on, I moved to use Scratch. After some time, I learned about GCompris, Tux Math, Alice, Robomind etc. During that period, I still used the non-open-source OS that came with my laptop. GCompris version on that OS does not include all the activities -- to encourage the usage of open source operating systems! So, I looked for operating systems for kids. I've started using the following operating systems.

1. Edubuntu. Venkateswara TV of Solaris sustaining team suggested this to me when I asked him about a Linux distro with GCompris. Wow! Edubuntu is very nice. In addition to what edubuntu comes with (lot of good stuff!), I installed more programs like Childsplay etc.
2. LiveCD for OLPC (One-Laptop-Per-Child). The user interface definitely appeals to kids. Kids seem to enjoy the text editing, painting, Turtle (LOGO) and EToys...!!

Recently, I came to know about OpenSolaris in Tamil -- one of these days, I'll try a LiveCD. Need to check if there is a Tamil version of Belenix out there...

( Feb 11 2008, 08:09:35 PM IST ) Permalink | | | | |