Which Linux For The Kids On Old Laptop

[Compass]

Hi,

 

As XP has gone the way of the dodo, and I cant afford a anything new at the moment, I was thinking Ubuntu or something so my boys can keep using a few educational programs and basic games that they enjoy.

 

The Lappy in question is an Asus Travelmate 290, 512MB ram, 30g hdd, low res screen, you get the drift, great for the kids.

 

OS would need to play flash etc

 

Advice?

 

[speeding_ant]

Ubuntu runs really well even on older hardware. The 'app' store works well and has a good range of software available. I believe you can still download an older version of flash as well.

[prtsmgr]

Found this on distrowatch.com:

 

DoudouLinux is a Debian-based distribution targeting young children. Its goals are to make computer use as simple and pleasant as possible while also making information technology more accessible to all children on earth, without discrimination. DoudouLinux uses a heavily customised LXDE desktop with a simple navigation system that offers links to about fifty applications for education, fun, work and multimedia tasks.

 

Targeted for 2-12 year olds

[kgregg]

+1 for ubuntu (but i am not a kid .  what age are kids?)

[doorunrun]

I recently switched from Ubuntu to Mint.  I see now Mint has it's advantages over Ubuntu and is "supposed" to be easier to switch over to from Windows.  As you my know there are different flavors. Lubuntu and Mint XFCE are scaled back for older hardware.

[Kryspy]

Another vote for Mint. Migrated both of my kids to Linux Mint from Winblowz. My oldest (12) actually asked for Linux.

 

Kryspy

[mrow]

Another vote for a flavor of Ubuntu. The standard distro using Unity is probably pushing it for 512MB of RAM. Xubuntu, or worst case Lubuntu, should be OK.

[garycase]

"... As XP has gone the way of the dodo, and I cant afford a anything new at the moment ..." ==>  XP will continue to run quite nicely for as long as you want to use it.    You can kill the "nags" about it being past it's end of life by uninstalling the "EOL Notifications" -- this is KB2934207.  Just to go Control Panel - Add/Remove Programs;  check the "Show Updates" box ... and search towards the bottom of the list for this update.  Remove it ... and no more nags      Since there aren't going to be anymore updates, also turn off Automatic Updates (this will also keep this update from being installed again) ... and go to Security Center and turn off notifications for updates.

 

There's no way I'm aware of to uninstall the latest update to Microsoft Security Essentials -- and if that's already been installed, then it is going to show RED all the time, warning you about XP being EOL.    It will, however, still accept definition updates and will protect your system just fine ... but it's clearly inconvenient that it's always showing a RED status.    I'd uninstall it and install another free (or paid) AV product -- AVG works fine with XP and is also free (although it does show a moderate number of nags to buy their paid upgrades).

 

Finally, you might want to make an image of the OS partition in its fully up-to-date, "clean" state ... so if you ever need to "reinstall" due to some future corruption (or failed drive), you can simply restore the image.

 

 

[Compass]

Thanks for all the replies, love this forum. My boys are 5 and 8, they use this website the most, www.mathletics.com.au which pits them against students not just from their class but all around the world.

 

Got Ubuntu up and running, seems a little slow compared to XP, not enough RAM I'd say, anyway, it's working with a few 'issues'. Had to load via usb as couldnt get it to boot from DVD. Firefox wont display webpages, play youtube vids correctly but Chrome will so using that.

 

Might give the Mint XFCE or Xubuntu a go if this proves to be to painful

 

Thanks again, even daddy is learning something!

[mrow]

What type of RAM is it? You might be able to get a 1GB stick on eBay for dirt cheap.

[Compass]

What type of RAM is it? You might be able to get a 1GB stick on eBay for dirt cheap.

 

DDR-333mhz-cl2.5

 

there's lots around, will see how I go with the other versions of Ubuntu before spending any money

[mrow]

Any updates? I'm curious how other versions of Ubuntu or other distros went for you.

[dmacias]

I would try the Linux mint xfce.  All my laptops have cinnamon mint except my wife's new Sony touchscreen which has Windows 8.  Her previous netbook had xfce mint and it ran very smooth.  It was an atom single core I believe with 2GB of ram.

 

[Compass]

Any updates? I'm curious how other versions of Ubuntu or other distros went for you.

 

Hey mrow,

 

ended up with Xubuntu, working well. tried Lubuntu and the mint xfce but got pci errors(i think it was that, cant remember now, something to do with video output)) when trying to load onto the lappy, so just moved along and xubuntu was the one.

 

Thanks for the reply's everyone

[unevent]

I use Xubuntu on a desktop and Netbook for a 12 & 14 year old.  I set up the 'start bar' to look like Windows and they haven't had any trouble with it.