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techteach00yesterday at 6:03 PM1 replyview on HN

So someone said something I think sarcastically that deserves a fresh comment.

"From now on all kids will become linux natives. The decade of the linux desktop is coming!"

I teach technology K-8. So I have a front row seat to observing how the next generation navigates this new digital wasteland. Due to the aggressive censorship and locked nature of their computing experience at school, think Go Guardian, they have become experts at using Google workspace to make art, comics, communicate with one another in class etc.

My point, the next generation really will become adept at using Linux IF the system is so locked down that it's all that's available. Humans adapt to their environment, no matter how harsh.


Replies

gsquaredxctoday at 12:14 AM

I somewhat agree and somewhat disagree. If your students haven’t completely disabled GoGuardian, they are only working within the system. At least when I was a student working on this problem, I spent some time writing some software that would selectively disable and enable GoGuardian features, but my peers were not. I’d imagine similar exists today, a “good enough” approach beats out a technically sound one. “Unblocked” games or websites rely on a brute-force “what are they going to do about it” ideology that doesn’t work when the person you are disagreeing with isn’t a 50 year old man that lacks motivation. If it can’t be explained in a minute, it’s probably unlikely any more than one in one hundred actually do it. As hopeful as I’d like to be about this, I’d doubt the next generation gets adept at anything more than lying about their age online.