On Fri, Nov 10, 2006 at 08:16:43AM -0400, Ben Armstrong wrote: > Milan, > > Nice to hear from you. This is exactly the kind of input I'd like to hear more of from users. > > On Fri, 10 Nov 2006 11:26:11 +0100 > Milan Zamazal <pdm@debian.org> wrote: > > > Well, to revive the list a bit. :-) > > > > I was looking for an environment usable by children at the age 1-3 > > years. The primary requirements were: 1. To be very robust (a typical > > computer "use" at this age is random hitting keys and moving and > > clicking a mouse, possibly observing what happens); 2. to provide means > > for viewing photos; 3. and being partially manageable by so small > > children. > > I agree age 1-3 is a harder age range. That's why I have been working more on 4-12 (my own youngest is now 5, and the others are 8, 12, 15 and 16). But what you're describing is really a whole different desktop environment, and not one that is only of interest to kids. Our focus has been mostly on apps so far, making sure the apps are there for kids in Debian and are kept in good shape. This is a simpler, less time-consuming problem than providing a complete integrated desktop environment. That age is definitely difficult. My desire would be to see, not necessarily a different DE, but perhaps an appropriate theme. For example, a very simplified desktop using large, fun icons and stripping out some of the things that are more complicated for little kids: right clicks, middle clicks, nested menus and so forth. The right combination of look and feel could be built pretty easily (he says without any thought...) by theming one of the existing DE's or WM's. Populated with the right packages under a meta-package and it should be pretty straightforward. 1. A big, fun simple interface 2. Simplified mouse interaction (something most WM's can handle, I think) 3. A set of basic apps - paint, draw, type, simple games. 4. maybe eliminate key-bindings. 5. passwordless login for kids accounts 6. maybe a seperate set of post-install scripts for setting things up in a kid friendly way. that's just some of my thoughts. My kids are currently 5,7,9 and are already pretty comfortable with winXP (wifey's box :( ) but I know they would be willing testers for something like this. > > > Unfortunately debian-jr appeared to be of no use for me. I could mostly > > find only metapackages to install certain sets of applications. What I > > actually needed and expected was an environment described above. > > I see. Well, given how little there is available in terms of apps > for ages 1-3, I'm not really surprised you found Debian > Jr. disappointing. Still, we are interested in making Debian better > for *all* kids "from ages 0 to 99" so addressing your needs is > definitely within our mandate. I don't think there's necessarily a dearth of apps for kids that age, its more of an interface problem. Really small children do what the OP mentioned above -- bash the keyboard and sometimes watch what happens. Maybe some kind of kiosk setup would be in order? Have the thing boot up running a paint program on the root window (is that possible? maybe) and then overlay some icons on top of it for launching other stuff like some games. That way, the kids can get immediate results by just clicking and dragging on the desktop -- look I can draw! and then when they inadvertently click on one of the icons they get something else. > > > Finally I've found Freevo (http://freevo.sf.net) that fulfills my > > requirements quite well and has been serving well enough so far. There > > are still some problems with it: 1. It is not in Debian and at the time > > I checked there was no ITP for it; 2. it depends on software not being > > present in Debian; 3. and finally it contains significant amount of > > bugs. how are you using freevo in this context? snip > > But even my 5-year-old is quite capable now of managing her own GNOME panels and enjoys "breaking" them and rearranging them to suit her tastes. So she spends far more time playing with & using her GNOME desktop than launching things via mythtv. I have always not worried much about making the desktop "kid-proof" put more effort into just giving kids free reign over their accounts and making sure that I can fix things that they break (backups!) because kids learn by breaking things. I think for the 1-3 crowd this might not be true -- when it breaks its broken and they throw it away or cry about it... your experience may vary :) but definitely by 5 this is true. by 9 they are ready to fix what they've broken and maybe fix what others have broken. > > But that's just me. That's a difference of philosophy, I guess. I'd love to have the time and resources to help support users who are taking a different approach with their kids, like you. > > [1] > http://syn.theti.ca/articles/2006/11/05/mythgame-player-to-run-native-linux-games > nice bit. A
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