Well, I have been reading reviews of Ubuntu by experts and geeks who have given their comments on various features of Ubuntu and what it has to offer. Here is one sincere review of Ubuntu by a child, who has just started to learn computers and has just passed out of first grade.
She is my niece and I bought her a new desktop so that she could be introduced to the world of computers. Earlier, I used to teach him to open folders and how to press enter form the keyboard with the help of my own laptop using Windows Vista. But lately, I was introduced to Ubuntu by one of my friends and I started thinking seriously about getting my niece a separate computer so that she could learn it freely.
My intentions were to keep the budget low and I did not want to spend buying Windows so I introduced her to Ubuntu and downloaded the derivative Edubuntu so that she might learn something while playing games and other interactive features. She found it very creative and interesting and she spends around 1-2 hours daily playing those educational games and sometimes watching some videos. She has also learned how to start the computer and how to shut it down.
When I asked her why she liked Edubuntu over Windows that I was teaching her through my own laptop, she said: “I do not know what you are talking about? I do not understand what is the difference between Ubuntu and Windows but yes, I like the games and activities that are there in Ubuntu. Does not Windows have it? Well if not, it should.”
It was a fair answer from a child who does not know what an operating system is. She just liked the features that are there in Ubuntu. After I explored some features of Edubuntu including Gcompris and Edubuntu suite, I realized that my decision to go for Ubuntu was not wrong. She will enjoy while she learn.
She said she liked the sounds that accompany when she plays games that are not there in Windows. Moreover, she liked the penguins pretty much, which is of course a common feature of Linux distros. 🙂
What more, I have given her an internet connection through a wi-fi card and she can now teach her father and mother who are not literate in computers. Apart from this, I give her some cartoons and pictures of her and her younger brother through networking. This all is going so well though I face problems dealing with different operating systems.
It seems like the reason she likes linux more than windows is that you’re exposing her to games on that platform and not on windows. I’m not a windows fanboy, I run linux on a webserver in my apartment. I’m also not an ubuntu fanboy.
Judging from the ‘related posts’ my comment will not be show.
Infact, windows doesn’t give the option of customizing its operating system for children. One would either have to buy or download 3rd party software. I do some computer repairs and the one part of computer rapairs I dread is making a computer for a child (or refurbishing an old computer for a child). Stuff to remove, add, download, recustomizing windows, adding extra security, etc. besides, windows is the same… but not everyone is the same. That is where ubuntu comes in.
@Imo Ekpo: I actually agree with you completely. When I was 7, my parents bought our first computer from a garage sale, a Windows 95. Though my parents are what you could call technophobes, and wouldn’t let me do anything other than play a game on one webpage, this is what started the tech-phase of my life. It wasn’t until I was 14 that I finally convinced my mom to give me permission to change the settings on my Windows XP, and then my Windows 7 when I was 15. When I was 16, I had full control over what went on on the family computer, and though my mother continues to reject allowing me to have total control, no one besides me knows how to remove viruses safely, nor what is safe and what isn’t.
I’m 17 now, and without my parent’s permission, I have attempted a full Windows–>Ubuntu conversion, having heard how the OS itself is fully customizable. Though it’s risky, as I’m editing the bios and risking the windows being unbootable, there is no better way to learn how to use a computer than to just jump in without fear.
Isn’t Windows customizable via hacking, though?