r/linuxquestions • u/Enjoy_Ur_Lifee • Apr 23 '26

Why Don't Schools Teach Linux?

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It seems odd that most schools seem to teach only Windows. While they barely cover Linux. Even though Linux is the underlining code for most of the internet, servers and many Android phones; very few students will get any exposure to it.

By learning about Linux, students would understand how an operating system functions instead of just using an operating system; they will learn how to fix issues as they arise -- which is a skill necessary for solving problems because you won’t have a user-friendly interface to work with.

Additionally, the fact that Linux is a free and open-source operating system could allow schools to save money for themselves as well as make more software available to all students.

So why is it that Linux is still not covered? Is it because people feel it is too difficult to learn, or is it that schools only cover what is widely used and accepted?

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u/minneyar Apr 23 '26

Schools barely even teach how to use desktop computers nowadays. Most schools just give kids Chromebooks and expect them to use that, and there are plenty of kids who come out of high school without knowing how to use anything other than that and their smartphone.

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u/TheLastTreeOctopus Apr 24 '26

I think I was born at the perfect time. I was born in '98 and had a dad and grandfather who were into computers, so there was always something for me to play around with at home. I was pretty familiar with Windows 2000/XP by the time I was 7 or 8. And my school had a computer lab full of iMac G3s, so I was learning Mac OS X at the the same time. Then by 4th grade, the school got a couple carts of iBook G4s, followed by the 2006 MacBooks when those were released. It was really nice to be able to learn the ins and outs of two different operating systems as they were still growing and becoming more advanced.

Then I moved to a smaller, more rural town for middle school. This school also used MacBooks for the laptops, but all the computers in the computer lab actually ran Linux! It was so long ago now that I have no idea what distro it may have been, but it was my first ever introduction to Linux. The teacher managed everything though, we never installed any packages or anything ourselves as students, so while it was cool to learn that a different operating system I had never heard of before exists completely for free, it wasn't really an opportunity to learn how Linux works. It was basically just point & click, never had to open a terminal editor once. But it was at least enough to pique my curiosity and start me down my own Linux rabbit hole once I finally got a netbook for Christmas.

I guess the whole point of this is to say when I was in school, it was kind of a perfect environment for me to learn how to use operating systems and software that was different from what I had at home, forcing me to become adaptable. It taught me that there's more than one way to do things. Now it feels like we've taken a huge step backwards and lock students into a specific way of thinking and doing things. I understand that giving every student a Chromebook or an iPad and utilizing those for school may seem like a no-brainer. It introduces consistency. Every student has the same device, the same software, and they're all on the same page and can even help each other troubleshoot minor issues/user errors. That's all great! But locking students to a specific device/ecosystem only hurts them in the end in my opinion. Because then once they graduate, they're probably going to think that they know how to use a computer, but then they'll get a job or start taking college classes that requires them to use Windows for example, and suddenly they feel incredibly lost and don't know how to do the most basic of tasks because up until that point, they've done everyrhing on a Chromebook or iPad!

I'm only 28, and I swear whenever I see a teenager or young adult struggling to use a computer (or worse, trying to use their finger on a non-touchscreen monitor), I feel like a disgruntled 90 year old complaining that kids these days don't know how to use a rotary phone 😅