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Comment by Drew on November 2, 2009 at 4:28pm

I downloaded it on Day 1, but finally burned it and tried it Live last night. For existing Ubuntu users I see a few nice tweaks but basically it is still Ubuntu.

Still kinda mixed on the Empathy vs Pidgin issue though.

To get all of the goodies (ext4, grub2, etc.) you need to do a full install, not an upgrade. I hope this doesn't become a trend because being able to do an upgrade at the click of a button is another plus for Ubuntu that the others just don't have yet.

Comment by Jeff Smith on November 2, 2009 at 4:16pm

Anyone tried the new Ubuntu 9.10 yet?

Comment by Jeff Smith on September 24, 2009 at 3:26am

We did a full episode on the Free Linux Helpline podcast with the lead developer of Edubuntu, Jordan Mantha... and I grilled him pretty good about the LTSP stuff... you may wanna give it a listen. http://www.archive.org/download/FreeLinuxHelplinePodcastMp3/FLHL_008_2-28-09.mp3

Comment by Drew on September 23, 2009 at 4:17pm

That sounds like a good method, and ingenious. My now 7 year old is pretty good about making changes and such to his environment. My 9 year old isn't so interested in the computer except the laptop (and she wants her own... pink... and a little bit smaller! Basically she described the Disney Pink Netbook without realizing it). My 4 (almost 5) year old is getting into gCompris (auto-starts when she logs in) which is just her speed at this point.

At age 5, though, my wife walked in to see how my son was doing on the computer (logging in) and she found him trying to quietly log in , under the username "daddy" :O

At age 6 he was sitting next to me and asked me "what's your username?"

Maybe I need to revisit the LTSP environment I had running a while ago. Unfortunately it was terrible FPS for some games (SuperTuxKart, etc.) but I found some documentation on making some apps run locally instead of on the server and can specify which machines (MAC addresses) to do it for. This would allow a program to take advantage of the local video card, and not the server's.

btw.. I use Ubuntu, Windows XP, openSUSE and am about to set up a CentOS server (though the LTSP concept may keep me with Ubuntu..)

Comment by Jeff Smith on September 23, 2009 at 3:14pm

Something that I use a lot on his machine to keep him from wrecking it is Pessulus. Its in the ubuntu repos. Its basically a lockdown editor. I lock down his panels so he can't remove his icons.

I always remove it from the menus and just start it with the Alt-F2 run command.

We control his machine via a combination of VNC and SSH. Its nice to do something like:
ssh -X username@192.168.1.102 "gnome-volume-control"

that way we get his volume control application on our screen, and he doesn't realize just why his movie is getting turned down to normal human levels.

but you can use any command there... my favorite ones to use thru ssh are nautilus, gnome-terminal and gnome-search-tool. I just set up launchers with those commands and remote administration is easy.

Comment by Drew on September 23, 2009 at 3:10pm

I don't plan on winning. I just plan on utilizing the 5-10 year head start I have to the best of my ability!

Comment by Jeff Smith on September 23, 2009 at 3:09pm

Yeah, TuxPaint is awesome, forgot about that one. He cracks up with the sound effects. He also uses Kxmame a little bit for Marvel Vs Capcom

Comment by Jeff Silverman on September 23, 2009 at 3:04pm

My 5yo is a huge fan of gCompris and Tux Paint (which is awesome, btw)

My 2yo likes this game, I forget what it is called, but it just makes lines and silly noises on a blank background when you move or click the mouse.

Also, I use nothing but Ubuntu at home.

Comment by Jeff Smith on September 23, 2009 at 2:41pm

He liked gCompris for all of about 10 minutes. Same with Childsplay... he just wasn't interested. As for filtering, you'd probably have an easier time if you just set your router's DNS to a customized account at OpenDNS.org... they filter at that level and any machine picking up a DHCP address in the house would be thus filtered. Lots of schools do it this way.

If you needed a machine for yourself to be unfiltered, you could manually stipulate the DNS servers of your ISP. Which is also how your kids could eventually circumvent it... but if your kids are mature enough to understand DNS settings such... you're probably fighting a losing battle.

Comment by Drew on September 23, 2009 at 2:22pm

Have you tried gCompris? It's good with the younger ages.

I also use a box as a filter box. It runs 2 NICs and IPCop. All internet traffic from the house goes through that box (it's right off the modem) and runs all requests through a content filter.

This way, even if they try using a LiveCD or they bring their friends iPod touch or laptop/netbook and connect wirelessly it goes through the filter.

The only way to bypass it is to physically make some changes to the wiring. So this means I have to get or make a cage of some sort to keep them out! ;)

Oh, and it is running on a PIII @ 700MHz Dell GX110.

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