1w ago

How do you lure your kids off iPhones?

mangotek.eu mangotek | Breathing New Life Into MacBook Airs

How do you lure your kids off iPhones? Give them MacBooks…running a "cool" version of Linux. Snagged 2 old Airs for just €50 each. Wiped macOS, & installed @elementary - a clean, distro that feels familiar to macOS users but comes with a lot less bloat.  Now they’ve got "cool" Apple gear, with the the rich world of #Linux that respects their freedom and sparks curiosity. Kids 1, Dad 1 Win-Win  #opensource #linux #elementaryOS #macbook #apple

14 comments

Dont buy them for them. Kids have no money unless you give it to them

you're probably making them feel like Linux is second class. kids are smart and they'll know that elementaryOS isn't macos. All they'll think is that they got the "cheap version" or something
- Cool kids run Red Star OS
- It's macbooks so they would be able to run real macos. Since you still chose to install something else, it must mean that this is somehow superior.
  
  Lol no. To all their friends they’ll say: ”yeah I know it’s not legit, it’s some weird thing dad hacked there for some reason. I want to have a real one but he won’t install it idk”
- Nah, they actually are pretty happy with it. If they want a MacOS, they can save up a buy it. Good for now.

If these Macbook Airs are from 2011/2013 (I expect so, based on the prices you mentioned), you might need to buy a usb wifi btw. The Linux driver, and the official broadcomm driver is buggy with latest versions of the kernel. On my mid-2011 macbook air there would be a crash when downloading lots of data (e.g. when updating the system), and on my 2013 one, it wouldn't wake up from sleep. Both issues were due to the buggy wifi driver. So I bought a tp-link super tiny usb wifi stick, and it works out of the box (I had to blacklist of course the broadcomm drivers before).
One last thing is that Elementary requires 1.2 GB of RAM to boot up, and these machines usually come with 4 GB. Make sure you have created a 4 GB swap file in there. Alternatively, Linux Mint can be made to boot up at 750 MB of RAM after removing some services. Either way, make sure you have created a swap partition.
- Actually 2013 & 2015 Airs. Yeah, was a great deal.
  And I got both the built-in wifi and the camera to work. Steps in my post. Items 6 & 7.

I'm planning to introduce my kids to Linux at a really early age. I was using DOS at 4-5 years of age. They'll be using Linux. I hope by hooking them up young, they'll grow resistance to corporat OSes and devices. Plus I'd be able to delegate the maintenance of the self-hosted services to them. 😄
"Hey girl, Immich is outta date!"

Never had as bad an experience with Linux as on a Macbook, and that includes Dell laptops in the early '10s. Sound doesn't work, sleep doesn't work either. Beyond that the keyboard is screwed up and double types all the time, which is totally unreasonable on a laptop ~5 years old.

that's better than what my dad did; he gave us computers with default fedora lol. threw me off linux for years.
fedora's very cool to be fair! but it felt very ugly and "unfashionable" at the time.

I think at some point its best to identify kids who stand out and nurture them so they can maximize their potential.
Like it or not, most people are just too stupid to appreciate the value of free software.
Telling kids that they're all equal does more harm than good in the long term, because it's not true.

What if I prefer my kid in the Apple world? Mine started on a PowerBook G4 and is using an M3 MBP.

14 comments