Date: Fri, 3 Jul 1998 10:03:15 -0700 (PDT) From: Ken McGlothlen <mcglk@serv.net> To: "David Caldwell" <caldwell_david@hotmail.com> Cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Here is a really odd question!!! Message-ID: <199807031703.KAA14221@ralf.serv.net>
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caldwell_david@hotmail.com (David Caldwell) writes: | I would like to know if this is a "good" operating system to start a young | mind in learning to use a computer? [...] My theory is that UNIX and | operating systems that work like it will never die and they are fairly | complex to understand,they require a fair amount of reading to be done before | trying to make additions or changes and the rewards for working at it can be | immense. Yeeeeeees. It's an interesting take on things. I would probably recommend FreeBSD as their *second* computer in a situation like this. I think a good introduction to *how* computers work would be a vintage Apple ][ or TRS-80; I'd actually recommend the latter, since you can get full schematics for it (I've no idea where one can get full schematics for the PC or Apple ][). In this way, you can even take the case apart and they can see the correspondance between the schematic and the actual circuits. There are also a bunch of neat tricks you can do with either system (toy with I/O vectors, make interesting graphics, etc.), and they both come with BASIC, which I still believe is one of the best beginner languages around (it corresponds well to how a computer *really* works, and is pretty readily understandable). As part of getting them that first computer, you might challenge them a bit; tell them that you will get them another computer if they write you a game on their computer that the family can enjoy. Short of buying one of those vintage systems, you might try just loading DOS 5 on the 486 (remember DOS?), getting a version of BASIC for DOS (any of those still out there), and challenging them the same way. Point is, eight and nine years old might be pushing it for something as complex as Unix---not that they wouldn't be able to comprehend what they were doing, but that some things require a much longer attention span than even *I* have some days, and I'm 35. Unix can also be a bit frustrating, and that's not necessarily what you want to convey about computers as a first ownership experience. As long as they're interested in that first project, by the way, *you* might want to take the time to get to know FreeBSD a bit more personally, and when they get their project done, hand them a CD and a chunk of hardware and say, "here, it's all yours---you can give your friends dialup accounts, run a webserver, whatever, and I'll even pay for the Internet connection." And then help them through that process. Your mileage may vary, of course. ---Ken To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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