Frequently Answered Questions

1) Where does the name "UKnow4Kids" come from?

It was inspired by Norville Barnes's line from The Hudsucker Proxy, "You know, for kids!"

2) Why isn't X educational software application in the distribution?

One of two reasons: a) I'm not aware of it; or b) I consided the application dormant (e.g., Childsplay, Phun) or too buggy to include in UKnow4Kids.

3) What are all the software applications that begin with "K"?

The "K" almost always signifies a product of the K Desktop Environment (KDE), an open-source development community that produces "a modern desktop system for Linux and UNIX platforms, comprehensive office productivity and groupware suites and hundreds of software titles in many categories including Internet and web applications, multimedia, entertainment, educational, graphics and software development. KDE software is translated into more than 60 languages and is built with ease of use and modern accessibility principles in mind. KDE4's full-featured applications run natively on Linux, BSD, Solaris, Windows and Mac OS X."  The educational software and games are a product of the KDE Education Project.

4) Does UKnow4Kids have a release schedule?

Yes.  My plan is to release a new version every 3-4 months, or about quarterly.  This should keep up with upgrades among the educational software applications as well as the rolling releases of Arch Linux. Release numbers are encoded as [YEAR].[QUARTER].[VERSION].  So the beta release is 2009.2.0.9, and the inaugural release is designated 2010.1.1.

5) What makes UKnow4Kids better than other educational distros?

My problem with educational distributions like Edubuntu is that they are intended for installation in a school's network server environment, so they include lots of stuff that just confuses parents and distracts children.  One aim of UKnow4Kids was to address this by focusing its utility on the desktop environment.  Another distribution, Qimo, which is just a few months older than UKnow4Kids, is similarly aimed at the desktop. 

My other problem is that most other educational distributions fail to update regularly, if at all, thereby missing cumulative benefits from technical and user-interface developments at both the OS and application level.

6) I need help!

The best course would be to visit the website of the software application (see Software) or for operating system issues try the Arch Linux website.

7) How can I help?

Donate money to the various software development communities, such as Gcompris, so they can carry on their work and know that they're appreciated. 

Since this is not a commercial venture, I accept no contributions either for myself or for the development communities that produce the software included in UKnow4Kids.

8) Where are the pretty UKnow4Kids wallpapers from?

The underlying images are from the Creative Commons website and used under Creative Commons copyright.

9) How do I get my computer to boot from the Live DVD?

Just after pressing the power button of your computer, enter the system BIOS by pressing F2 or F8 (check your computer's documentation to be sure).  This will display the BIOS settings, one of which controls which devices the computer boots from.  Select the DVD drive where you've placed the UKnow4Kids Live DVD as the first boot soource (usually followed by the hard drive).

10) For what age range is UKnow4Kids intended?

From the software development websites, it seems that the software, especially Gcompris, best serves children 2- to 10-years-old, although some software would be interesting to teenagers through high school.

11) Has there been any research or scientific evaluation of the effectiveness of the included software applications?

I don't know of any.

12) Is a 3D graphics card necessary to run applications on UKnow4Kids.

Generally, no, though it is possible some applications may benefit from 3D acceleration.

13) How can I save files?
You cannot save personal files to the hard drive  while using the Live DVD, but you can:

a) Email the files to yourself via Firefox, which is included in UKnow4Kids.

b) Plug in a USB memory key to copy off your files.

14) Can I save personal configurations to the Live CD?

No, this is not possible for UKnow4Kids.  Someday, it may be possible to permanently install UKnow4Kids so you can save configurations and files to the hard drive.  But this would require the user to sacrifice hard drive space and require creating a multi-boot configuration so you can choose to boot to Windows after UKnow4Kids is installed.  At this stage, I have decided to adopt a conservative approach that avoids potential harm to the host computer system, but sacrificing convenience.  That way, both you and I know the UKnow4Kids Live DVD is safe for your computer.

15) What's the username and password for the UKnow4Kids live CD?

Because UKnow4Kids is based on the Unix operating system, you may occasionally need to supply a username and password.  They are as follows:


16) How the heck do you get to the main menu?

Click the icon on the far left side of the taskbar, where the Windows Start button would be.