Childrens Games

[waynetw]

I need help with Linux and playing games.

My brother is a teacher of kindergartens and First Graders. He has received computers from the school district and has asked me to get these computers running cheaply.

Yes I would like to use XP Home but that is more money then he or I have to spend. The good news is that three computers are quite powerful as is they are free.

Dell Opti Plex
Model:GX270
P4 2.6 x 2
512 MB upgradeable to 2Gigs
80 Gig, HD
AGP Nvidia 64MB graphic; but I will probably remove these and use the on board Intel graphics.

What he wants to do is to use them for the kids to learn math, reading, and typing skills.

So my question is, what is the best OS to use, where can I get the games from, and how do I run new and old Windows games on the linux systems.

[bee]

There are games for linux, about chemical solution, math, learning how to type on the keyboard and so on... i just don't know all the names, but with you can find them, maybe with yum!
yum search educational
yum search child
and so on...
you don't need a powerful system, those games are insensitive to old systems.

Btw, the best way to help reading, is take a book

[roachy]

Personally I think Edubuntu is a great solution. It basically creates an LTSP server - clients then boot via PXE and run as thin clients on the server, meaning that the hardware requirements on the clients are minimal. The distro comes with a load of educational packages pre-installed.

Oh.....and it's a little less brown

http://www.edubuntu.org/

[bee]

But edubuntu is not fedora!!
i thought he was asking about fedora and yum...
Demo:

[bee@localhost ~]$ yum search educational
============================= Matched: educational =============================
childsplay.noarch : Suite of educational games for young children
childsplay_plugins.noarch : Plugins for childsplay (educational games for young
                          : children)
drgeo.i386 : Interactive educational geometry software
gcompris.i386 : Educational suite for kids 2-10 years old
kdeedu.i386 : Educational/Edutainment applications
tuxtype2.i386 : Tux Typing, an educational typing tutor for children

[bob]

As to running old/new Windows games for kids, they may run under Wine, which is available from the repos, but it's by no means a sure thing.

Check out 'childsplay' and 'kdeedu' for possible games/educational options.

[roachy]

But edubuntu is not fedora!!
i thought he was asking about fedora and yum...

Fair enough - asking the question on the fedora forum is likely to get a Fedora orientated answer....but....

So my question is, what is the best OS to use, where can I get the games from, and how do I run new and old Windows games on the linux systems

No point re-inventing the wheel, and surely the solution should be the "best fit" for the situation ? Looks like the games in the repo's are similar, so it's really a choice between installing and removing a load of packages on some fedora builds or installing 1 system and setting up PXE boot on the clients.....

Sorry - don't mean to get into a battle of semantics - just my opinion of what might be easiest

[waynetw]

Well yes I am using Fedora but it does not have to be Fedora.

I wanted to know which one would be the better choice to use. and easy to maintain.

This project is only for my brother and is not funded by the school. This means that the computers will not be on the schools network so internet will not be used and he Only wants educational games. He wants to setup a small computer lab for the kids in the class room to study but not to go to the internet.

That edubuntu seems very interesting. Is it easy to setup. Can each individual pc use the OS., or is there only one server and many clients.

So the basic question is, which OS should I use for simplicity and for a wide area of games and educational tools?

[waynetw]

HHHmm, IC

So you think I should use edubuntu?

[bee]

ok, never mind roachy.
But, yes, the games are the same.

childsplay:
http://childsplay.sourceforge.net/screenshots.php
tuxtype2
http://tuxtype.sourceforge.net/screens/
KDE related:
http://edu.kde.org/
gcompris:
http://gcompris.net/-Screenshots-
drgeo:
http://www.ofset.org/articles/80

To keep your software updated, you can use yum; but if the are no network connection... well, no updates then!! it's the same for every distro...so it's not only about fedora; to keep your system updated you need a internet connection. But maybe, as we are talking about updating games and a system within games for kids (...not a mission critical service) maybe updates aren't necessary at all..................

[roachy]

It's ultimately your call......you know your situation better than I do, however I feel that Edubuntu is a great distro. In answer to your earlier question about ease of setup, check the docs here:

http://www.edubuntu.org/GettingStarted

I'd say it's as easy to set up a Edubuntu network as it is to customize a Fedora install to best fit your needs, but again, thats just my opinion (i'm an ex-Ubuntu user, currently using Fedora 9)

[roachy]

I agree with Bee.....no need to worry about updates whatever you use. If the machines aren't connected to the net, then your only vulnerable to exploits being abused by the users, and I've yet to meet a pre-school hacker