In today's open source roundup: The Kano Linux kit makes learning to build and use computers fun for children. Plus: Three streaming music clients for Linux, and the eNcade is a portable retro gaming console Kids will often amaze you with their natural curiosity and ability to turn learning into pure fun. The Kano Linux kit offers kids a hands-on way of learning how to put a computer together, and then use it to learn to code and hack. ZDNet reports on the Kano Linux kit and notes its appeal for the younger generations. According to ZDNet: Kano, a small British start up with strong Israeli ties, set out to make the inside workings of a modern computer accessible to children again. The idea behind the project is get kids coding and hacking themselves, and was inspired by one of the founders’ seven-year-old cousin who wanted to build a computer and wondered if it could be made as easy as playing with Lego. The Kano kit is well-packed. The orange cover opens to reveal a neat carton housing the $150 system’s parts. Among them is Kano’s heart, a standard Raspberry Pi Model B board, with a Broadcom BCM2835 SoC, 700Mhz ARM CPU, 512 MB of RAM, two USB ports, composite and HDMI video out ports, 3.5 mm audio jack, 10/100 Ethernet socket, and an SD card slot. More at ZDNet What a great idea! I love the fact that it offers such a hands-on experience to kids. And it seems very well designed to let them jump right in and start doing things in a direct way. I think most kids will get a lot out of that kind of experience, and it may steer some of them toward IT related careers later on in life. You can get more information on the official Kano site, and Wikipedia has a good background article on the Kano computer and company. It’s a promising product and I hope it does well. Here’s a video of the Kano computer being assembled: Three streaming music clients for Linux Linux.com has a story about streaming music clients from late last month that I missed. Here it is for those of you who want to try out some of these applications. According to Linux.com: That’s right, Linux can get that music stream to your desktop in many ways. If you’re a lover of Spotify, Pandora, Last.fm, SoundCloud…you name it, there’s a way to stream that music. But don’t think you’re limited to using a web browser. Linux has clients, and plenty of them. I want to highlight what I consider to be some of the best streaming music clients for Linux. Some of these are a one-trick pony, while others allow for the streaming of multiple services. Either way, you’ll be rockin’ open source on your desktop of choice. Spotify Pithos (for Pandora) Clementine More at Linux.com Those of you who like Spotify should definitely click through to read the article since it contains instructions on how to install Spotify in Linux. MakeUseOf also has a useful article called “Five killer resources for Linux music streaming” that you should check out. The eNcade portable retro gaming console Geeky Gadgets reports on a new kickstarter project called the eNcade. The eNcade is a portable Rasberry Pi console designed for retro gaming. According to Geeky Gadgets: Fancy building your very own portable Raspberry Pi gaming console? If you do then you might be interested in a new Kickstarter project called eNcade which has been created by Nicolas Wicker at Nzen Mods. The eNcade project is currently over on the Kickstarter crowd funding website looking to raise $6,500 in pledges to make the jump from concept to production. More at Geeky Gadgets You can get much more information on the eNcade Kickstarter page. It looks like a very cool project and they are still looking for backers to fund it. I’m sure some gamers would love to run the old Nintendo, Sega Genesis, and Super Nintendo games on it. Here’s a video of the eNcade running some classic retro games: What’s your take on all this? Tell me in the comments below. Open Source