‘QUIMO’ for Collarenebri Infant School

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Overview of QIMO Qimo 4 Kids (pronounced "kim-oh", as in "eskimo") is a child-friendly desktop environment built entirely with free software. Qimo comes pre-installed with educational games for kids: TuxPaint, eToys, GCompris, Tuxmath, and Tuxtyping. Large colourful icons help young users navigate easily. It is "designed for early elementary school aged children. Qimo is based on Xubuntu, using Xfce and is designed to be visually appealing for kids."[3] The fact that Qimo is based on Xubuntu, helps provide low hardware requirements: minimum of 256MB of memory to run from the CD, or 192MB to install. At least 6 GB of hard drive space and a 400 MHz or faster CPU is needed.[2]

Reviews Qimo 4 Kids is a distribution of Linux, derived from the popular Ubuntu, customised for use by children ages 3 and up. It comes pre-installed with free and open source games that are both educational and entertaining, with many more educational titles available for download from Ubuntu. The interface of Qimo 4 Kids has been specifically designed to be easy to navigate by the youngest of users. …. When I saw the headline pop up on my reader, I was excited, my 5 year old LOVES Qimo, she's been using it for a year, and couldn't be happier. The dock setup was the perfect gateway to the menu, which she now uses. I also have Kidzui set up on her firefox, and she independantly plays on “Her” computer, an old P4 laptop that I got 2nd hand. I am forever a Qimo fan, and recommend it to everyone with a child to start out with a fun, intro operating system. It made my daughter feel like it was for Her, it was different than dad's, with all the cool games. I know, it's just a simple gui on xubuntu, but when she tells people about it, and how she loves Qimo, it becomes more.

Advantages of QIMO Qimo was designed to be a standalone home computer for kids Qimo will run from a LiveCD Qimo will fit on a CD Qimo will run on old computers-The fact that Qimo is based on Xubuntu, helps provide low hardware requirements: minimum of 256MB of memory to run from the CD, or 192MB to install. At least 6 GB of hard drive space and a 400 MHz or faster CPU is needed.

Disadvantages of QIMO Lacks compatibility for advanced applications May not work with proprietary applications e.g. Microsoft

Future Outlook for QIMO Adding more vendors to our line up in the near future Based on the Ubuntu operating system which has long term support Because of the low power requirements could be used on a variety of hardware platforms Appears a cost effective solution for the Infants school environment May have application with Language support to developing countries/development projects

Summary QIMO requires little technical support and works on a range of hardware QIMO has programs specifically designed for the elementary school environment

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