Why “Kiddie” Linux Distros are Awesome
In a Diaspora post, a user shared this Linux humor post, which I “liked” and am re-sharing – with a little twist:
There’s an assumption in the comic that the “kids” will “grow up” to become super-duper master geeky techno-wizards with “mad programming skillz” and create a master race of sentient androids or something.
I say, in reply to this assumption, “until you are ready:”
Ready for what? Some of us are just ordinary users who surf the ‘net, write letters and term papers, share e-mail, watch videos, and play games. It’s all we did on Windows or Mac, and it’s all we care to do on any OS. We run applications, not the operating system.
Ready? To do what, exactly, besides customize / personalize the desktop, and install peripherals like printers, speakers, joysticks and stuff? The most inexperienced novice can do all those and keep everything updated effortlessly in the “kiddie distros” as they have been called. And you can add Linux Lite to that list – and you see what all the “kiddie” distros have in common? They are Ubuntu-based. More than anyone else, Canonical (Ubuntu) has brought Linux to us ordinary, non-geeky mortals and kept thousands if not millions of computers out of landfills. Others are doing similar work! Salix, for example, is doing for Slackware what Ubuntu did for Debian. And it’s crazy simple to use even though Slackware is certainly not (I just wish Gnome stuff was available in Slackware!). Even Arch has a derivative or two that are made for simplicity and “friendliness.”
I have installed and used at least a dozen distros, from Debian and Ubuntu (and derivatives including Mint, ElementaryOS, LXLE, and Linux Lite) to Salix and even the newcomer, VoidLinux. I’m not a novice, but in the end I’m really “just a computer user” and I really only want to get my school work done, surf a little bit, blog a little bit, play a little bit, and listen to a little music. Why make it complicated?
The funny thing is, a whole lot of very gifted geeks worked very long and hard to make Linux available and usable by us “ordinary desktop users.” And many of us ordinary mortals are grateful, supporting our favorite projects with translation help, monetary donations, and getting the word out.
And a whole lot of very gifted geeks use the same “kiddie distros” as we mere mortals do, either to help develop them further or just because they want to run applications instead of the OS for ordinary tasks.
– An unashamed “kiddie distro” user
Robin's Rants and Raves 
I’m grateful to be a kiddie-distro user. Those distros are the ones pushing GNU/Linux forward for the masses. If I ever told my old grumpy father to download this and that package, dependencies and compile it for him to just run an app or an OS in some cases he would give me a “you’re either playing dumb or it is not an act” look while walking away to the Apple store or to BestBuy to purchase his next Windows computer.
My father uses Linux Mint and he is fine with it because it allows him to do what he needs and it has nothing to do with the underlying OS in his view. If he could get a typewriter to do banking, pay bills, check emails and watch youtube videos he’d be happy with that. Same applies to relatives and friends I’ve introduced to Linux by means of a so called “kiddie-distro”. They mostly don’t care about the power-user stuff because youtube requires no more than a browser and an internet connection. They appreciate Linux yet they know nothing about its philosophy; like most people, they do have a life beyond an OS.
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Reblogged this on Thar She Blows! and commented:
Another quite thoughtful essay by “Technophobe” Robin. About what? Linux of course! I mean, let m e bitch and make bad puns about nanny Linuxes as much as I want, it’s true, you can find many many super geeks on decidedly kiddie distros like Linux Lite, Mint, *buntu and other pippifax shit. And here is why:
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Many consider CentOS as a “server OS”, but with few 3rd party repositories it can be GREAT Desktop/Laptop OS.
Main feature is that once installed it can run up to 10 years without any changes to look, functionality, core packages. Seldom are packages which major version is changed (Firefox is one, Thunderbird, maybe LibreOffice). Kernel API stays the same but important enhancements, drivers and/or security patches are *back-ported* meaning added without changes to the “exterior” of kernel. Even drivers from ElRepo repository are “kmod” ones, installed only once for current kernel, but through “weak-updates” continue to work on every other following kernel without recompiling them.
If you are tired or irritated by upgrade/reinstall every 6-12 months to latest version of your OS, then CentOS is excellent “boring” OS for you, and best option to USE your computer for WORK without constant maintenance and solving new bugs for new software versions.
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🙂 Nicely stated, Robin.
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