Posted: Fri 01 May 2009, 18:37
Well, yes...just the thought of using FreeDOS, which really is free, to run programs designed for Microsoft products....
Looking into it, and DOS's history (which I wasnt aware of), I can see comparatively there is really no compromise at all, its all above board and a perfectly acceptable way to get kids educated.
Ive been busy on my facebook, and think I have a few more testers for the home version with the ntfs/fat drivers taken out. Ive also been sent links to a lot of very active parenting forums. I will contact the Mods there to see if we would be able to offer some more testing versions to the people on there. Chances are they will be quite IT literate, have kids, and be able to use a forum to report back here!
I can see this being brilliant for parents just for being able to boot the computer with the CD in and go get on with another job around the house, safe in the knowledge that there little ones were safe and learning. The internet has suffered a bad press from the TV (basically because its going to supercede the TV!), and I believe HanSamBen would be of benefit to a lot more children if we could say that it was totally incapable of accessing the internet at all. I know there are a lot of resources (cbeebies.com) etc for children online, but this would require parental supervision.
i.e. If we could say "will not effect your M$ windows install and will never let your children on the internet" it would attract a lot more parents to provide it to their kids.
This would we could removw seamonkey/firepup which would make a lot of room for extra games and activities. If we were to aim it at being able to boot into ram at 256mb then that would be a definate "sweet spot" that would still make a lot of computers available that wernt useful for running XP or any other linux.
Just some ideas.
Looking into it, and DOS's history (which I wasnt aware of), I can see comparatively there is really no compromise at all, its all above board and a perfectly acceptable way to get kids educated.
Ive been busy on my facebook, and think I have a few more testers for the home version with the ntfs/fat drivers taken out. Ive also been sent links to a lot of very active parenting forums. I will contact the Mods there to see if we would be able to offer some more testing versions to the people on there. Chances are they will be quite IT literate, have kids, and be able to use a forum to report back here!
I can see this being brilliant for parents just for being able to boot the computer with the CD in and go get on with another job around the house, safe in the knowledge that there little ones were safe and learning. The internet has suffered a bad press from the TV (basically because its going to supercede the TV!), and I believe HanSamBen would be of benefit to a lot more children if we could say that it was totally incapable of accessing the internet at all. I know there are a lot of resources (cbeebies.com) etc for children online, but this would require parental supervision.
i.e. If we could say "will not effect your M$ windows install and will never let your children on the internet" it would attract a lot more parents to provide it to their kids.
This would we could removw seamonkey/firepup which would make a lot of room for extra games and activities. If we were to aim it at being able to boot into ram at 256mb then that would be a definate "sweet spot" that would still make a lot of computers available that wernt useful for running XP or any other linux.
Just some ideas.