Trying it on

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yottie

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I have a young relative who expresses a desire to "get into computers".
Would like to encourage him, and to see if he is keen would like to set up an old machine to see how he goes. Have a Smsung N130 which is showing its age. I seem to remember using an old machine where the system was loaded on USB each time, this would be a great way to get him started ??
 
How young?

Yes let him learn how to assemble, install, setup on an old one.
Prob best to stick to win7 rather than 10 initially.
 
"Getting into computers" is rather a sweeping statement, what aspect are they interested in, I've not tinkered with any hardware or installed an OS for probably over 15 years.
 
You can load Linux from a USB stick or a DVD but Linux is not the easiest system to use or learn on. Linux is also not used much by main stream computer users. Far better to get him started by buying a used machine with Windows 10 installed. Windows 10 is the current operating system and there is nothing, at all, wrong with it. Windows 7 will not be supported after early 2020 and is a resource hog, compared to Windows 10. To be honest he should be doing computers in school. There is nothing more soul destroying to someone who wants to learn than a slow, old and out of date computer. Also whatever you try to load from a USB drive on to that machine will just make it go backwards. Just because people say they haven't "tinkered with any hardware" or "loaded any operating systems" since the year dot doesn't mean you shouldn't. I am forever doing both those things and a lot more besides, because it interests me.

Having said all that there aint no money to be made in computer repair. The big money is in programming especially gaming but you have to start somewhere.
 
Doesnt he do programming in school, my grandsons been doing it 3-4 years now.
 
Why not get a raspberry PI, teaches a bit about hardware and programming and is very inexpensive.
 
Don't use an old machine that might crash or die before he gets anything done.

Lots of places to start depending on the type of programming / coding / computing he is interested in.

Scratch is popular - they used this at my son's school, I think.
https://scratch.mit.edu/

Might be worth reading this, although a few years old now - just to understand the sort of topics kids are learning
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/04/coding-school-computing-children-programming

Codelab - might be worth a look - https://www.imperial.ac.uk/computing/outreach/codelab/

This is London based, but maybe something similar in your area, what with summer holidays almost here - https://funtechsummercamps.com/
 
yottie said:
Linux Lite
Click to expand...
that's just an operating system - although might be handy on an old machine.
I installed Linux Peppermint on an old laptop a few years back, brought it back to life for a while.
 
The main challenge is to find a purpose. Playing with computers without a purpose can get dull quite easily. The hardware is comparatively easy to get hold of, depending on what you want to do with it.

Depending on age, area and interest there may be a scheme, club or corporate program that would suit him.
 
Comments here about trying Linux and sticking with Windows 7. I personally disagree with both of those ideas, probably because I have no sense on age or current ability, but I do agree with the idea of builiding/creating with purpose.

I remember I built my first desktop by buying a part each month from my part time job at Sainsbury's. I was previously gaming on hand-me-down prebuilt desktops at that point so my motivation was just generally playing and loading faster. Wasn't a smooth journey so expect toys out the pram.

Keep it simple to begin with. While the Samsung laptop you have now is old, perhaps encourage him/her to look in to fitting a compatibile SSD (a type of hard drive) and larger RAM (aka "memory") module. This will give it new live. Hand over a screwdriver and see what happens.

Here are videos on how to remove/replace/upgrade the hard drive on that laptop: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=samsung+n130+hard+drive+removal+

Here are videos on how to remove/replace/upgrade the RAM modules on that laptop: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=samsung+n130+memory+upgrade

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/ is pretty cool too. Helps you build a computer and tells you if there any issues with compatbility of the components you've chosen. Nice price comparison and reviews too. Pretty much all products on the market are on there.

Thereafter, maybe install Windows and set it up how you like it. Or go nuts with installing Linux and just understand that other operating systems to exist. Simply installing either Windows or Linux will give confidence.
 
It makes sense to use Linux (as well as Windows) as many things run on Linux platforms. Most of the web is on Linux servers, most apps served from Linux machines etc.
But developing software and maintaining computers and operating systems are two different things. I'd get a child interested in animation, simple games etc first, then they will probably investigate hardware and operating systems when they need to. But I might be wrong! The only people I know well that became coders / developers learned on the ZX81 and Atari ST initially!
 
Yeah, sure. I mean, the words were "I have a young relative who wants to get in to computers". One step at a time ;)
 
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