Best Window Manager for Special Needs Children
Hi Everyone
I have heard lots of debates about window mangers. If window Manger A has a number of features that B does not have and it takes just N more memory then it's has the upper hand. However what if memory and features are not the most important thing. I feel that with special needs kids, easy of use would be the most important thing. I like Joe's window manager but having a "work space switcher" could be very confusing. Do you think that TWM would be the easiest window manger to use? It has a large X for a mouse pointer by default. Would a tiling window manager be a good idea. Accidentally iconifying a window might be frustrating as an example. If you could put yourself into the "shoes" of a child that does not know computers well, what pitfalls could they fall in, how could these be avoided. Thanks for reading-Patrick |
Hi Patrick,
Give us a hint at the special need; I'm guessing mild mental retardation, or ADD. I've just had my head in a windows based linux installer and it has a long list of distros. Among the distros listed are "Linux for Kids" DouDouLinux Qimo*4 Kids 2.0 Sugar On A Stick They must surely have solved this problem for you. |
Hi Business_kid
Both of my kids have autism. There are delays but lack of patience and trouble problem solving can be issues I'll have a look at those distros Thanks |
Have a look at this blog post. He recommends xmonad as being very suitable for children.
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You can always get rid of the pager on the panel and set the number of workspaces to 1.
You can also disable the minimise/restore/close buttons in some GUIs: in Xfce you use the Window Manager control panel and in Mate I think you use dconf or gsettings and alter button-layout. |
My favourite WM is fluxbox, it may work for you, it has simple files for configuring most things, make as complex or as easy as you want, create a very simple menu, or a comprehensive one, by altering a text file. No desktop icons by default, & just a right click menu pop up.
If you want it in a distro, take a look at Antix 'base', this is what I use. http://antix.mepis.com/index.php?tit...ors.2FDownload |
Hi.
I like Xfce, KDE and +1 for Sugar or so on (any will do,) key is to block from systems apps &c. Here's a blog post I made a while back: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...like-me-35291/ too bad I did not take any screenshots but wound up giving him KDE with no bar just screen widgets, toys and icons( of various sizes...) have fun, free! :hattip: |
Thanks everyone for these great posts
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What are they comfortable using, and why? Might it be possible to start from something like they are using and gradually change things (change is a problem, I think?) from there? Personally*, I'm hating using Gnome Shell I'm booted into almost as much as the Windows 10 I escaped earlier by doing so because I like XFCE. I would imagine somebody who liked Gnome Shell would feel the same going from Windows 10 to XFCE.
Is it, perhaps, a case of giving them what they need to do and allowing them to learn to expand to what they want to do? *I've been on edge for the last few weeks because Debian Sid's not been working on my machines. |
Kids with Autism have often have concentration in bucketloads, once motivated. Why not involve them in the choice? Better chance of success that way.
I once suffered too regular updates of Mandrake(now Mandriva) as a 'crashtester' while they promised help. I got a python script out of them for starting various window managers in X depending on my choice, by dint of copying their glowing promise of help to crashtesters on to their mailing list and holding them to it. It appears to still exist http://rpmfind.net/linux/rpm2html/se...hp?query=xtart |
Hi 273
My son is 10(11 in March.) He can use Ubuntu quite well. However it's on an underpowered laptop and I would like to switch to something lighter. My daughter just turned 7. She is brand new to computers and needs something simple. Thanks |
hi business_kid
My son's concentration is excellent, my daughter's is not so great yet but is improving. thanks for the link for window manger testing-Patrick |
It might be worth installing LXDE on the Ubuntu laptop and seeing how he likes it? I say LXDE because it's light and though I don't find it as customisable as XFCE if he's used to Ubuntu he's used to not being able to change much. You should be able to install LXDE (or, indeed, XFCE) alongside Ubuntu's Unity -- it may not work wuite as well as Lubuntu but will give the option to try other DEs with Unity as fallback.
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Quote:
JWM is awesome on a raspberry: Code:
<?xml version="1.0"?> |
[OT] on your userename
Quite OT, but I appreciate the name you chose, having been there myself. I will pass on a car poster which I saw on an overcrowded old banger going through a small town. It read:
Quote:
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My autistic grandsons laptop after I set up icewm and rox pinboard.
This is not a out of the box setup. But it only took me a few minutes and mailing the hard drive to my daughter and coaching them over the phone on installing hard drive to the laptop and connecting it wirlessly to the internet with wicd. I jury rigged the tool bar for terminal launch applicatios like xcalc Code:
desktop-defaults-run -t xcalc https://s23.postimg.org/51mq30dx3/grandson.jpg Once in a while I get a call on installing games and making a icon on the desktop. Which is super easy peasy on rox pinboard. My grandson and daughter are happy campers with the speed and ease of use on updating applications and the speed of browsers and youtube playback using smtube. Expensive gear was not needed for his laptop. He uses a Dell E5500 Which handles games and you tube videos and online movies just fine. Seamonkey comes with irc chat so he can gab with his buddies also. Up to you or not. But I cannot stand a canned product for some one I care about. The nice thing about AntiX. It is Debian. It is easy to tweak. Just drag and drop from /usr/bin or /usr/share/applications. Set icons with right click and grab them from /usr/share/pixmaps or /usr/share/icons. It is pretty self explanatory. If you like Lubuntu. Ok, but it is different and runs a Desktop Environment. It is not a Window Manager. It cannot be daily dist-upgraded like AntiX but needs a reinstall when eol comes up. You can try the ubuntu dist-upgrade when it shows up. But I understand more breakage occurs usually, than not . Especially if the user starts making un-monitored changes like adding third party sources.list and third party applications. Not approved by the ubuntu software center. Like I said. Up to you. |
Hi 273
I was thinking even lighter but now that you mention it, LXDE could work. I am still concerned about managing windows and I want to exhaust tiling window mangers but it's still worth exploring. Thanks |
Hi business_kid
Thanks! I like the bumper sticker too-Patrick |
Hi rokytnji
Thanks for the screenshot, this is very helpful-Patrick |
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