Yes, I agree, and I do believe the kid’s parents would also agree. And it’s not like the kid is given free reign to roam the internet, looking for the most cancerous, brain rotting, worst AI-slob the internet can provide, no. It’s more like a TV basically, with age appropriate shows running in the background, and in our own language no less. He basically seems to occasionally take like a breather of sorts, stopping for something to bite or a sip of his milk or whatever, before running along with his childish endeavors.

But yeah, absolutely. Too much screentime in early childhood can and will lead to developmental delays, and in order to raise the optimal human being one should optimize every aspect of the child’s life, adjusting at optimal intervals all according to the child’s personal development. But you know, life doesn’t work like that. And yet, as I just stated to the comment you replied to, I am thankful for your concern; we’re all trying to do our best for this kid. If my little gift of an old laptop can bring joy and happiness into that little dude’s life, that is basically enough for me.

I really don’t want to start arguing against this sentiment, because I agree with it. But the kid in question is not my son, and however much I personally don’t agree with using a screen as much as my friends have with the kid, I also understand why it has come to this (that the kid’s parents had decided to use a screen to calm him down, which it does) and how different peoples’ life situations can be. Also it’s not like he’s completely swallowed by the bright lights and colours and noises the screen provides, at least as far as I can tell, as whenever I am or anyone else is around he likes to do other things as well (such as playing with his physical toys or engaging in other activies kids like to do, such as climbing furniture and doing somersaults and stuff) though I’m obviously not there all the time. Also he goes to daycare where the screentime is minimized I assume, and more emphasis is given to social education and stuff.

And this laptop wouldn’t even be his first, this would be basically an upgrade over the old, beaten-up laptop his dad has had laying around.

So yes, thank you (all of you, other comments as well) for your concern for this child’s wellbeing. We will continue doing what we can towards doing the best we can with the information we have at the given moment.

Yeah that’s part of the plan already, actually! Because that HDD is like real old

Yeah, I’ve considered Fedora a few times while distrohopping. But I didn’t ask that.

Oh yeah, that sounds good. He’s a smart kid already, for sure, and his dad is an old nerd (like me tbh, except 10 years my senior) so yeah, might just do something like this… But maybe at first keep it as a Youtube-machine, until he learns to speak and comprehend more stuff. But thank you for the idea, though! Really didn’t consider this before.

Weird (but not really unexpected) that Chrome uses less RAM in this case. I think I’ll consider this too, thanks!

Just realized it’s 14 not 16, but yeah I actually used that thing for gaming! Even games that were kinda new back then, up until Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor which ran at like 10 FPS. Thankfully I got enough money to buy and build my first desktop after that. Which served me faithfully for some 10ish years with no upgrades, even running RDR2 (with graphics so low it could be considered minus), which actually kinda surprised me!

Addendum: I should add that the distro should be Debian or Arch based basically (as these are the ones I know best, or have the most experience with), because if something doesn’t work (for some reason) I will be the one debugging it, and I kinda don’t want to learn a new distro and its quirks in order to do so. Because I’m lazy like that. So I’m gravitating towards maybe Manjaro or L/Xubuntu.