supertuxcart
this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2025
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Linux
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As the parent of a ten year old, make sure you check in with the parent. I'd want to make sure there's some web guardrails and some time limits.
The nice thing about her being 10 is it's all the same to her. She doesn't have any preconceived notions about what the OS "should" do. If her only machine runs mint, then she'll figure out how to use mint.
My niece, same age. no problems so far
I installed linux mint xfce on an old laptop for her.
we set it up together and she loves it. Themes icons and all that jazz.
I have hidden and removed items from the start menu. Just to keep it simple.
I also set up some aliases so she just has to open a terminal and type "update". she loves that. Thinks she's a hacker now and impresses her friends.
I have set up an alias to call bleachbit, so she just types "cleanup" in the terminal, types her password, and she can watch bleachbit do its thing. I explained to her how important it is to keep her machine clean, like housework at home.
I must say, Kids are a nighmare for attracting viruses and malware using windows, its not the best age to suddenly be thrust into the slop of the internet.
They are young and excitable and will click on anything and everything that catches their attention without giving it a second thought.
Its a big plus not worrying about viruses and malware on linux.
To stop her having free reign and accidentally seeing porn on the internet and protect her from the worst crap, I installed Mullvads DNS on linux and in the librewolf browser.
Mullvad have a fabulous family dns filter; https://family.dns.mullvad.net/dns-query
here are the options:
https://mullvad.net/en/help/dns-over-https-and-dns-over-tls
I have set the search engine to Startpage
I have also taken advantage of Ublock origin and added loads of these is the: my filters list
just a few of many to stop access to certain websites from the search pane
This one stops amazon links appearing in the startpage search
startpage.##.g:has(a[href=".amazon."])
startpage.##a[href=".amazon."]:upward(1)
This one stops ebay links appearing in the startpage search
startpage.##.g:has(a[href="ebay."])
startpage.##a[href=".ebay."]:upward(1)
I spent more time on this than anthing else;
I installed and switched to Ubuntu around the same age. I'm sure your niece will be fine with Mint. All she really needs to know how to do is to look stuff up online.
I recommend pointing her towards Mint and encouraging her to install it herself. Don't assume that children are incapable of these things just because they're children.
Mint is good, just go with that.
You are familiar with it and can most easily help her if/when she needs it.
KDE and showing her the effect customisations are key. My daughter went nuts with those when she was ten. Wobbly windows for life!
yeah something exciting like kde would do wonders
GNOME user here. Also love wobbly windows. Must be innate human nature.
While mint is neat, Ubuntu or any distro with gnome would work in the "very graphical, large icons" sense.
I dont know about mint, but debian does security updates automatically and just politely asks for a reboot now and then, perfect for an "unattended" device.
I dont know about mint, but debian does security updates automatically and just politely asks for a reboot now and then, perfect for an "unattended" device.
Yeah, Mint can do this too. I've set it up on a few of our computers, but it was a while ago so I can't remember exactly how. It was very easy though. The only downside was Firefox insisting on a restart after an update, but apparently that's been fixed now :)
I'm thinking Hannah Montana Linux
I doubt kids these days know who that is. It shouldn't be too hard to patch it to Taylor Swift Linux though.
Just print out the arch wiki in a series of binders, give her access to a tech recycling center, and a screwdriver set. That'll learn'er
Dude... she's 10, what are you talking about. That would just be humiliation. Don't you know the age - distro gold standard?
3 - Linux Mint
6 - Arch
9 - Gentoo
13 - Linux from scratch
15 - Maintainer of distribution
18 - Kernel developer
21 - Printer user
39: Windows
80: Those electronic typewriters that I’ve always wanted one of
give me access to a tech recycling centre too :`(
Mint is good. Fedora & KDE might be a good choice because of the customization. Could be a nice way for her to make her desktop her very own creative project that inspires her to learn more about her computer and how it works. Fedora is pretty damn snappy. dnf is really easy and she could just use discover or whatnot to install apps.
Help her rice up her desktop a bit and show her how to install some programs. Maybe bookmark some tutorials for different programs you install and the OS of your choice.
Blender, kdenlive, krita, gimp, inkscape, strawberry for music, libreoffice, vlc, supertuxcart etc....
Then turn her loose and let her have fun.
I'd say go ahead with Mint, MATE edition is my preferred flavor.
Set it up with the Compiz 3D desktop cube switcher thing, and maybe a couple other nifty effects to mesmerize her even more!
Sure she'll likely end up tinkering more with the Compiz settings and bork the settings a bit after she sees what all it can do, but it can totally be a fun learning experience, and Linux is easy enough to reinstall anyways in worst case..
I'd install it with her. As quick as possible, no lengthy explanation. Installing doesn't take long. When it installs, you can play a game. Just so she sees that it's no witchcraft