I was looking for something really simple - like how the BBC Micro and ZX Spectrum were to my generation. Linux Mint is certainly capable, but also more than what I need.
There isn't really anything comparable - there's too much cruft and too many platforms, devices, and peripherals to support, so the simple close-to-the-hardware OS isn't all that practical anymore. Maybe one of the realtime operating systems for microcontrollers are simple enough? Parallax has some products that are fun to play around with as well as being technically interesting and quite capable (they're discontinuing the P2 eval board in favor of their modules, so you can get a decent deal right now, too).
Not sure about your actual goals, but maybe start with something like Pico-8 or TIC-80 fantasy computer? Our 8yo son got an instant grasp of the command line this way; I think at least TIC-80 had a handful of standard Unix commands available as well (e.g "ls").
Next thing I noticed, our son was checking wifi availability on his own via 1) opening the command prompt in Linux Mint and 2) typing "ping google.com". Made my day when I saw that.
I suppose the relevant part is to move step-by-step, and to focus on teaching "Unix mindset" instead of specific tools. TIC-80 or PICO-8 are not bad at all for that.
Have you considered PiperKit? I'm not affiliated in any way, by the way - this caught my eye because it seems like you're trying to get a young one interested in software (kudos). I used the Play Piper kit to teach twenty 7-8 year olds in a summer camp a couple years ago, and it worked great. We wrote Python code and built "smart" doll houses out of cardboard with LEDs for room lights and computer fans for climate control.
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[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 30.8 ms ] threadNext thing I noticed, our son was checking wifi availability on his own via 1) opening the command prompt in Linux Mint and 2) typing "ping google.com". Made my day when I saw that.
I suppose the relevant part is to move step-by-step, and to focus on teaching "Unix mindset" instead of specific tools. TIC-80 or PICO-8 are not bad at all for that.
Good luck!