

Qimo: A desktop OS designed for children - epall
http://www.qimo4kids.com/page/What-is-Qimo.aspx

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asnyder
The first thing I tried to do was click on the center image. Several
screenshots of Qimo in use would improve the site tremendously.

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mahmud
Here:

<http://www.quinncoincorporated.org/screenshots.php>

I had to do a little snooping first, only because their "donate" link figures
so prominently on their site that it triggered off my scam detector. They're a
legit non-profit founded by a couple.

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frossie
I hope the keyboard repeat is set to off by default, because this is how my
kid tttttttttyyyyyyyppppppppppeessssssssss

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tptacek
Nope. Prove me wrong, Qimo: nobody is going to know what Qimo is 2 years from
now.

* It uses the exact same desktop metaphor as OS X.

* My kids (starting ~age 5) have had no trouble picking up enough Finder and Firefox to use their Mac.

* Its one killer app (TuxPaint) is far easier to install on OS X than it is to install Qimo anywhere else.

* The remainders of its apps are pretty much just that, especially compared to what kids can get from the web now. Sorry; calling it like I see it.

A real, supported, up-to-date web browser for kids with a rock-solid "kiosk"
mode, yes. Give me a Paypal link. An Ubuntu distro, no.

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ZeroGravitas
Are you reviewing this as a startup idea? Your response seems a bit harsh for
an open source educational charity.

One benefit of open source is that Qimo could disappear tomorrow and others
could carry the torch and build on anything of value they produced.

I use OS X myself and am aware that they have a simplified Finder for kids and
old folks, but I see value in having something to put on old junker machines
for kids, particularly younger ones that are more likely to spill paint on
them or whatever.

You're right that the web is important for accessing the widest range of
material. The only real knock that Linux has from the point of view of web
kiosk for kids is the lack of shockwave plugin that some older content on e.g.
the BBC kids sites uses.

Also, did anyone else think that Qimo sounds too close to Chemo (as in
therapy)?

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uninverted
Their site runs in ASP on Windows? That's a bit messed up for a linux
distribution.

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zain
What makes you say that? Looks like PHP/Apache running on Linux:
[http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.qu...](http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.quinncoincorporated.org)

~~~
bmelton
What-is-Qimo.aspx is the URL to the home page.

I mean, you can of course play with MIME types and serve arbitrary file
extensions, but why would you want your Linux distro to seem as though it was
served by IIS?

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Zev
Maybe they have better things to do (like work on the distro) then care about
some nitpicks. The audience here isn't geeks. It shouldn't matter that much.

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trickjarrett
Just a quick note that you may want to consider a new name, when I read the
brand name I mentally pronounced it as 'Chemo' as in chemo-therapy.

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metachris
great idea! reminds me a bit about the olpc-approach to design ui's especially
for children and exploring new concepts.

i couldn't find out too much about qimo on the homepage though... i think it
would be a good idea to write how qimo differentiates from other distros. and
link in the screenshots! :D

Keep up the good work -- We need more projects dedicated to children!

