My kid won't need a laptop for a few more years but i've been using linux and i'm planning on making them use linux. The privacy implications and learning potential could be worth it from an early age.

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freedomben a day ago | parent | next [-]

I have done this, and in many ways it has been one of the best parenting decisions I've made. My oldest is a better CLI user now than most engineers I work with, and it came almost entirely from him exploring the system and getting excited about all the cool things he can do. It also made it super easy for me to teach him more self-service things, everything from looking at system logs to see why the xbox controller or even the USB keyboard isn't working, to learning how the software stack is assembled.

For my other kids that don't care about that sort of stuff, even they have become very capable computer users. It's been easy for them to learn Windows and ChromeOS at school. I already see the same pattern of diving deeper developing with my youngest too.

One of the most rewarding things I've experienced as a parent is seeing the hacker spirit still very much alive.

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rtkwe a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Make sure they have at least a passing familiarity with Windows and it's apps because like it or not Windows is still the default in the school and working world so they'll have to work with that stuff to some degree. Otherwise go for it.

Side note how's open office compatibility these days? Last time I tried it yeeears ago there were still compatibility problems that would have made group projects hard.

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Gud a day ago | parent | next [-]

As a long term *nix user(FreeBSD and Linux) forced to use Windows for work,

I observe that every few years Windows is completely changed. It’s a total hodgepodge of decades of crap. That’s the only thing you need to know.

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freedomben a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Purely anecdata, but my kids only use Linux at home and hadn't used anything else until they got (Windows and ChromeOS) computers at school, and they were able to get going quite easily. Honestly I think learning to use a mouse and keyboard is the hardest part since most of these kids grew up using tablets and phones as their first "computers."

Office compatibility still kind of sucks. It's very usable, but still quite a few papercuts. In my kids case though, Google Docs pretty much solves that problem so it's largely been a non-issue.

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happymellon 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Make sure they have at least a passing familiarity with Windows and it's apps because like it or not Windows is still the default in the school and working world so they'll have to work with that stuff to some degree

Don't bother. I would have said that I was "familiar with Windows", I used 3.11, NT 4.0, XP, Vista, and 10 to a lesser extent and my wife needed help with her work laptop. Honestly Windows 11 is significantly different and apparently hostile enough that I couldn't find anything.

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ranger207 15 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

When I was in college a few years ago everyone did group projects in Google Docs, so Libreoffice compatibility was a moot point

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nobody9999 17 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

>Side note how's open office compatibility these days? Last time I tried it yeeears ago there were still compatibility problems that would have made group projects hard.

While Open Office still exists (and is being actively supported), LibreOffice (forked from OpenOffice fifteen years ago) gets more frequent updates, is more broadly used, and is widely preferred over OpenOffice these days.

I use it and it's a nice replacement for the Microsoft Office suite. In fact, I have Microsoft Office and prefer LibreOffice over it.

I suggest giving LibreOffice[0] a look. Many of the compatibility issues have been resolved and it works nicely.

[0] https://www.libreoffice.org/

	▲	rtkwe 4 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Yeah, academically I know that but OpenOffice was king back when I needed it so I forget and default to calling it by the old prefork name. Since then I've mostly been at a job where Office is provided and rarely have need of it at home.
	▲	cmcaleer 14 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		> Open Office still exists (and is being actively supported) Actively supported is a stretch. Look at these commits. https://github.com/apache/openoffice/commits/trunk/
	▲	ndsipa_pomu 5 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		LibreOffice is definitely a better choice than OpenOffice. For using Teams, I'd recommend just using the web client. I did try installing the Microsoft native client for Linux, but all it seemed to do was open an empty window (i.e. not drawn in, so it showed what was under where it appeared) and wasn't at all functional. The web client seems to work, though I don't use it very often.

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brewdad 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Absolutely. My kid just finished an engineering degree from a well respected institution. Early on in the intro programming classes, about half of his class was unfamiliar with file system structures. Chromebooks and iPads in school and at home meant they had never really encountered them.

There were plenty of other "techy" things that older generations take for granted but kids aren't learning about unless parents show them because they are hidden behind modern OS/software interfaces and usually locked down to prevent discovery.