More on PicarOS: Test passed!

One week ago, I described my encounter with PicarOS, a charming spin of GALPon MiniNO targeted to children.  I talked about how beautiful I had found it and how to walk the ropes of getting it installed as a dual boot with Mageia 2.

In the course of a the week, something interesting happened.  Several adults who saw the OS got grazy about it.  Megatotoro reports that even a school principal told him that she wanted PicarOS on all the lab computers of the school under her direction.

Default desktop in PicarOS 2012 (GALPon MiniNo)

Well, when I installed PicarOS to the desktop and laptop computers of my 2-year old daughter, I said that I had great expectations.  I meant that my daughter was not home when I performed the installs.  Therefore, I had not seen her reaction to the OS, and this is, understandably, paramount to speak about the success of PicarOS.  After all, the point of the distro is not getting adults excited (which it certainly did), but children.

My wife and daughter came back from their trip and the latter started narrating --with her growing Spanish vocabulary-- all of her adventures, while the former looked for her laptop to show me the pictures she had taken.  It was a nice illustrated conversation: my daughter Eimi told me about her visit to the park with the dinosaurs and her mother filled in the gaps when I did not understand the narration.

But then, it was time to turn off mommy's laptop and Eimi, upset, started crying.

It was the perfect time to see the PicarOS laptop in action.  As my daughter cried, I took out her machine and turned it on with discretion.  Eimi continued showing her frustration until a distictively childish music announced that PicarOS was about to launch.  Upon hearing the start music, Eimi turned to the screen and became quiet.  The OS greeted her with its icons and colors and my daughter ran toward the computer.  She sat in front of the screen in a state of awe, leaving her frustration tears behind.

We then began using the computer.  I simply cannot express the look in Eimi's face; it was as if, for the first time, she had encounter a computer that understood her.  She loved everything: the sounds, the colors, the icons, the software, the fact that the computer talks in the language she is trying to master...

Since then, Eimi regularly asks me to sit with her to explore the wonderful new world she has thanks to PicarOS.  We are having great fun discovering, singing, and playing together.  Today, for instance, we had a 1 hour 30 minute session of Poison Rouge in which, among other activities, she sang "Frere Jacques" and "Ten Green Bottles".  To  my surprise, she is picking up number in English quite fast, too.

This proves that PicarOS passed the test: it is a Linux distro that children can use to learn and enjoy.  My child, for one, loves it.