Re: [Hampshire] Me, John, Linux and Ubuntu

On 05/11/2007, Benjamin Ashton <benashtonlakeland@???> wrote:
> Hello. I wonder if you can help me.
> I am a father of three boys. My middle child, John, became very ill after
> prolonged attacks by bullies and has subsequently been diagnosed by
> psychologists at the hospitat as having post-traumatic stress disorder after
> one particularly nasty bullying episode.
>
> -%%- I know that this doesn't sound very much to do with LINUX but I will
> get there in the end!!
>
> John, who is 9, is now being home educated by me and my wife and is making
> a steady recovery. John has a lively and inquiring mind and a strong
> determination when working on projects such as the Solar-Powered Fan Cooling
> System taped to his bedroom window, or the Portable Shoebox HiFi, each made
> out of electronic parts cannibalised from remote control cars, old radios
> and from bits and pieces that we've bought for him. Then there's the
> interest in insects ....
>
> About a year ago John got given an old laptop with Windows 98 (upgraded
> from '95) on it. Gradually it started to go wrong (DLL files). We haven't
> got a lot of money, are not on the internet and, as it was an old machine, I
> didn't consider that it was worth the hassle or expense to search around for
> a copy of ' 98.
>
> --%% I will be discussing LINUX shortly, I promise !!
>
> The best that I could do, with my limited understanding of computers, was
> to remove windows from the Boot Up and allow John to play around with DOS.
> John has enjoyed very much learning and using the DOS commands, also
> downloading free DOS games from the internet at the library, putting them on
> floppies, and unzipping them on his machine.
>
> Unfortunately we've come to a bit of a standstill: (1) the laptop is
> becoming more and more temperamental and (2) we've never managed to get a
> USB driver to work for DOS and so John is limited to only downloading 1.44
> Mb files.
>
> I had read about Ubuntu and, when I spoke to Alex at Jamie's Computer Club
> about purchasing a machine and heard that they had systems with Ubuntu on
> them, I was very excited.
>
> What I like about such a system is:
>
> a) I think it would be stimulating for John to work on a different
> Operating System
>
> b) I plan to spend ~£100 and I can get a lot more bangs for my buck if I
> don't have to spend half the budget on Microsoft
>
> c) From what I can gather, there are a multitude of programs written for
> Linux which John and I could download from the library internet on to a USB
> memory stick (we plan to get the internet some time in the future, budget
> allowing).
>
> d) I understand that John would be able to use his digital camera via USB
> on Ubuntu and put his photos on to a DVD/CD
>
> e) I've been told that Ubuntu has a C compiler built in to it. I think
> that I would enjoy teaching, and John would enjoy learning, C.
>
> f) I am interested in the whole OpenSource network idea and think that it
> would be of interest to John. From what I gather, Opensource programmes can
> be customised and improved and then offered back to the internet. I
> understand that this would be too difficult a process that requires a lot of
> computing skills for John at the moment, but I also know that he is a very
> determined little man that might well be inspired by such possiblities.
>
> What does anyone think about my plan? Am I barking up the wrong tree? Are
> there any major drawbacks that I am unaware of?
>
> If we did decide to get such a set up then would John be able to accompany
> me to some of the HantsLUG meetings (judging from your emails, these would
> prob. be too technical for the near future), or would that be considered
> inappropriate bearing in mind his age ( I quite understand an adults only
> rule) ?
>
> If anybody can give me some advice that would be very much appreciated.
>
> Ben Lakeland.
>

Linux should work fine on that old laptop.
Linux does have a C compiler called gcc.
gcc also does C++ and other languages.
Linux also has little programs that emulate DOS, so he could still run
all those old DOS games under a program called DOSBOX or DOSEMU and
also some windows games using WINE.
Linux will work with the USB ports, so he could use usb memory sticks
to transfer programs and data across.
Linux has graphics programs, word processing applications etc.
All those programs described above are free to download open source programs.

Regarding bringing him to the Hants LUG meetings. I have only ever
been to one meeting, not through choice, I would go to more if I
could, but even after only one meeting I found everyone very helpful
and friendly. I don't see any reason why you could not bring children
to the meeting. (Note: I have not read the LUG policies on this
matter, so I appologize if I am wrong on this fact.)

Kind Regards