On Sat, Nov 15, 2008 at 4:42 PM, Oren Beck orenbeck@gmail.com wrote:

The reality is most non-tech "appliance operators" don't give a thought to what's in their computer. At least that's my home experience. The migration away from outlook to purely web based mail was not traumatic. Firefox replacing IE has been a recurrent headache. Largely born of UI changes breaking her learned interactions, I have had her use my oft mentioned Kiosk install of Puppy 4.0 with an amusing set of comments. Most notable being the frustrations over subtle differences,

I have been trying to migrate my family over to Linux for years, with mixed success.

My wife obstinately refuses to even consider moving from Windows. She uses XP at work, she wants to use it at home. She likes MS Office 2007 and refuses to even try OpenOffice. Unfortunately for her, she really doesn't understand Windows troubleshooting, and since I have been on Linux for so many years (and more recently, OS X), I have lost most of my Windows troubleshooting skills. The other night, she told me she is about ready for a new computer; I told her that if she wanted Windows Vista or Windows 7 on it, she would have to learn to do her own troubleshooting, because I just won't support it. That went over well (NOT).

My son, however, is an entirely different story. I gifted my old Linux desktop to him, put Edubuntu on it, and he has quickly adapted. Most of the educational software is too mature for him (he's only 5, and just learning to read), but he has taken an immediate liking to Tux Paint (and printing!) and enjoys practicing his spelling words in OpenOffice Writer. I feel better because he is using Firefox, fully loaded with AdBlock, FlashBlock, and several other plugins, and he can still use his favorite websites while I can control what those sites try to load on our machines. The other night, he confided to me that he enjoys using "his" computer much more than using mom's laptop; part of that, I'm sure, is that I allow him to play with pretty much any part of the system he wants, knowing he can't break anything that can't be trivially fixed. Thank you, sudo!

A question for parents out there with small children. When do you think it is appropriate to introduce the young one to programming languages such as LOGO? I remember playing with it in gifted classes when I was in elementary school on an old Apple, but I'm sure I was in 5th or 6th grade at the time, just because that is when we first got the machines. Do you think it is easy enough for a first- or second-grader to pick up, or should I wait until he's older? Are there other languages out there that are as easy for young ones to pick up?

I'm interested in your thoughts!