projects / beta
Linux Jr
A real Linux terminal for kids — teaches pwd, ls, cd through missions, not lessons.
What it does
A kid opens a URL and gets a terminal. Green text, blinking cursor, missions that feel like hacking. They type real Linux commands — pwd, ls, cd, cat, mkdir, find, grep, base64 -d — to find hidden files, decode messages, and help a cast of friends in a cozy tinker-workshop. Age 7+. Works on iPad Safari as a PWA. The same game ships as a real shell experience via npx linuxjr.
Under the hood the filesystem is an in-memory JavaScript object with kid-friendly error messages. Nothing fails scary. Nothing uses jargon a 7-year-old wouldn’t know.
Why not Scratch
Most kid-coding tools teach through pretend languages — drag-and-drop blocks, fake robot DSLs. They teach logic. They don’t build muscle memory for tools a professional actually uses. A kid who spends three years on Scratch still opens a real terminal at 12 and sees gibberish.
Linux Jr flips that. Every command the kid types is the same command running on every server and Raspberry Pi on Earth. They graduate to a real shell and there’s nothing to unlearn.
The interesting design choice
There are two products in one app: a Campaign (story missions in order, ages 7+) and an Arcade (CTF mini-games in any order, ages 8+, adapted from OverTheWire Bandit and picoCTF). Same engine, different surfaces. After an Arcade capture the kid gets a 😐 / 😊 / 🤩 rating prompt with an optional textarea — playtest feedback lands in localStorage for later review.
The non-negotiables live in SOUL.md — a short document of rules that every PR is checked against: the terminal IS the whole product, real Linux not pretend Linux, typing is mandatory, nothing fails scary. One iteration tried to add modal cards for mission briefings. It violated rule #1. I walked it back and committed the rejection as a tombstone branch so future sessions don’t re-propose the same mistake.
CI runs ESLint, Vite build, gitleaks, and a custom sloppy-guard.sh that grows over time — every new class of sloppiness gets a check.
Credits
Pedagogical shape from Cyberchase (PBS). Register from Daniel Tiger. Aesthetic direction on an early (rejected) extension from Kali Linux. CTF source material from Bandit and picoCTF. Tone inspiration originally from Bluey, since swapped out for an original cast.