Based on the fact you're using Arch I'm going to guess that you've already considered the distros they are meant for older hardware like damn small Linux and puppy Linux; but you want to set this up for a child and Hannah Montana Linux fits the bill even though this distro is mean as a joke, I bet the aesthetics will work.
this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2025
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With 4GB RAM, a dedicated GPU and a new SSD, you'll be able to install and run any Linux distro.
For someone who doesn't want to deal with maintenance, I'd recommend Fedora Kinoite.
The desktop is similar to Windows, you install all programs through the app store, updates are installed when ready during the next reboot, when something goes wrong you can just reboot into the last working state, and the command line is almost entirely useless.
Maybe Mint XFCE. It should be really nice after 22.1 releases. I always suggest the Crucial BX500 as a cheap SSD upgrade. It's fantastic for the price.
Mint xfce runs perfectly for me with the integrated Intel graphics on a sff dell from 2011.
Xfce is also much more customizable in appearance than just about any other DE.
It used to be my favorite DE by far.
Sucks that they are the last of the popular DEs to still not support Wayland, though.
I logged back into an X11 session recently for some testing. It now feels like going back to the stone age.
I’m sorry to judge you, but I don’t think a 2 year old should be using a computer.
I think it’s important for kids to learn how to really use a computer (instead of just a smartphone), but it’s mostly important to show them they can have fun away from screens.
2 years old need to learn interaction with other people.
That’s how they learn language.
So, spend time with them, not the screen. Screen time will come by itself.
In fact there’s data of development delays if kids are exposed to screen at early ages. That is because our eyes like movement, but screen picture doesn’t provide meaningful world context. Especially games.
Only personal interaction gives words in meaningful action context.
My wife is speech pathologist, so I am sharing what I wax told.
We have a friend, who didn’t listen to no screen time. Kid is delayed in development. It is serious staff and yet so simple to prevent.
Give your kids all the time you can in 1st several years.
Yes, I agree, and I do believe the kid's parents would also agree. And it's not like the kid is given free reign to roam the internet, looking for the most cancerous, brain rotting, worst AI-slob the internet can provide, no. It's more like a TV basically, with age appropriate shows running in the background, and in our own language no less. He basically seems to occasionally take like a breather of sorts, stopping for something to bite or a sip of his milk or whatever, before running along with his childish endeavors.
But yeah, absolutely. Too much screentime in early childhood can and will lead to developmental delays, and in order to raise the optimal human being one should optimize every aspect of the child's life, adjusting at optimal intervals all according to the child's personal development. But you know, life doesn't work like that. And yet, as I just stated to the comment you replied to, I am thankful for your concern; we're all trying to do our best for this kid. If my little gift of an old laptop can bring joy and happiness into that little dude's life, that is basically enough for me.
Try LXLE. I stuck it on an old 16+ year old desktop and it runs smoothly as my shed computer.
When you said 16 years, I was expecting something like a core 2 duo and 2gb of ram, but you got some nice specs in there. Any common distro will run fine. Users coming from windows tend to like linux mint, so that's my suggestion.
Linux Mint will work wonderfully on it. It has 4 GB RAM and a cpu that scores 1220 CPU points on passmark benchmark. That's more than enough to run Mint with Cinnamon -- which is very Windows-like, and the recommended distro for windows users.
I'd suggest you install it for him, and you configure it as it should (go through the prefs). Also, disable a couple of startup things found in the utility in the prefs, e.g. the wizard and the reports, to save ram. To save even more ram, install chrome for your friend (I know, I know, Firefox is there, but Chrome uses less ram on youtube -- almost 2/3s). On a 4 gb laptop, for someone who specifically wants to use youtube, that matters. And along with it, ublock origin on the medium level, so it can block youtube ads.
uBlock Medium requires some unbreaking of websites, so i would avoid it on this laptop. Ungoogled Chromium could be a good replacement for chrome.
Ungoogled Chromium doesn't autoupdate though. Chrome and Chromium do.
Debian with XFCE works well on my old netbook (~15 yr old).
NixOS with gnome
You have an opportunity. Give him a pre-installed Linux and a terminal, along with a page of commands that he can run to do neat things... including starting the GUI to watch his favourite (ideally pre-downloaded) videos, running some demos, etc.
Don't make it too easy, but not too hard (2 you said? Can type a few characters though..)... Add to it over the years, unlocking the power, and guiding him to discover more by himself.
Kids won't become tech savvy if we hand everything to them on a silver platter, with touch screens, controllers, and flashy games. It can be bland and boring, until they do something.
It might just be the most life changing gift they ever receive.
Oh yeah, that sounds good. He's a smart kid already, for sure, and his dad is an old nerd (like me tbh, except 10 years my senior) so yeah, might just do something like this... But maybe at first keep it as a Youtube-machine, until he learns to speak and comprehend more stuff. But thank you for the idea, though! Really didn't consider this before.
That would be wonderful! I got the opportunity to try Linux when I was like 5 (didn't know it was Linux) and even though I was already very interested in computers, I didn't know I was using Linux nor how capable it was.
It took time until I had my own laptop and could start learning new things, and only knowing about Linux from afar since I wasn't able to install it myself and didn't have any adults that could teach me, but you could be that person to this kid (if they're interested in the future ofc)!
Addendum: I should add that the distro should be Debian or Arch based basically (as these are the ones I know best, or have the most experience with), because if something doesn't work (for some reason) I will be the one debugging it, and I kinda don't want to learn a new distro and its quirks in order to do so. Because I'm lazy like that. So I'm gravitating towards maybe Manjaro or L/Xubuntu.
What about Manjaro with XFCE? That would have graphical package manager/settings/etc out of the box without being very heavy