Don Watkins (He/Him/His)

16903 points

Franklinville, New York

Educator, entrepreneur, open source advocate, life long learner, Python teacher. M.A. in Educational Psychology, M.S. Ed. in Educational Leadership, Linux system administrator.

Open Source Star People's Choice Award Social Sharer Award 2014 Conversation Starter Award 2015 Best Interview Award 2016 Best Interview Award 2017 Moderator's Choice Award 2018 Moderator's Choice Award 2019 Author Comment Gardener Open education 100+ Contributions Club Contributor Club

Authored Content

Generate QR codes with this open source tool

Zint makes it easy to generate more than 50 types of custom barcodes.

Explore the night sky with this open source astronomy app

Stargaze from your Linux desktop or Android device with KStars.

Family learning and reading together at night in a room

4 ways open source transformed education in 2020

Open source tools fueled innovation in teaching and learning in 2020, as schools moved online to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Program your microcontroller with MicroBlocks

MicroBlocks brings a Scratch-like interface to programming the Micro:bit, Circuit Playground Express, and other microcontroller boards.

Teach a virtual class with Moodle on Linux

Teach school remotely with the Moodle learning management system on Linux.

Customize an Intel NUC with Linux

Boot up Linux on the small but powerful Intel NUC. Use it for coding, video conferencing, and more.

Authored Comments

Don Watkins

8 Jun 2022

How I gave my old laptop new life with the Linux Xfce desktop

Great review of XFCE. I learned some things from your article that I'm going to try. I also breathed new life into a laptop a couple of years ago using the XFCE desktop.

Don Watkins

23 Apr 2022

How Linux rescues slow computers (and the planet)

Excellent article David! I agree wholeheartedly. I've done many of the things that you have shared in repurposing older Windows computers that friends have given to me. I used many of them early in 2020 to get senior citizens connected to video conferencing so that they could stay in touch with their families. It was only in the last four years that I purchased a new laptop for myself to run Linux. That was from System 76.