Hacker News Reader

Comment by johncoltrane | Hacker News Reader

Teaching kids how to use computers with programs and operating systems they will never come across again in their whole life. That is a really good idea.

View on HN

We should be teaching kids how to teach themselves how to use new programs - not rote memorization of the UI for the current versions of windows, adobe, etc….the last thing we need is generations of tech illiterates that are slaves to “industry standard” proprietary software

Microsoft changes the GUI in each version of Windows with no rhyme or reason. If you’re teaching kids to memorize the exact GUI layouts instead of vendor neutral computing principles or the actual lesson content the school is doing it wrong.

Probably most of the OS or program-specific stuff they’re learning in school will be out of date when they’d profit from using it anyways. Children need to learn more general concepts, otherwise they end up like my mom suffering every time windows decides to change the UI.

For that matter, mixing windows and Linux might be even better since they’ll need to adapt and transfer knowledge (although this would probably be painful and exhausting for everyone involved)

All operating systems are pretty much the same. I switched from Windows to Ubuntu on my parents computer and they didn't notice any difference.

Why read Shakespeare when you can read Twitter?

Why go for extremes when there are more sensible options?

I prefer the option which is most optimal, and I've used an analogy to show why yours is not.

Should schools use a mobile OS like Android or iPhone since that's most popular especially for school age?

Whatever they have reasonable chances to use as grownups. Ubuntu is not it.

Most adults also use mobile OS which are needlessly restrictive in terms of productivity software, even compared to Ubuntu, so it can't be just that or we would put the kids on Android and iPhone, don't all/99% adults use them?

EDIT: also how do you not think that Ubuntu using kids won't go on to use this free tooling in the future? MS spends a ton to target the education market because they know that you can get kids hooked early you get easier wins.

Harsh? Wouldn’t it be good to socialise kids into FOSS?

I would rather prepare them for real life.

Oh, just hand them your shovel?

Having a familiarity with linux isn't a bad idea, it introduces them to the command line.

This may be an essential skill to have in this era of automation with LLMs. People who have never programmed before are writing cli scripts to save time and enhance their work.

Ubuntu is easier for beginners to program with, and Windows has WSL so the skills can transfer over.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com