Software you would install for a kid to use? These are for Foster Kids

[Chilli]

This is off the wall question I know.

Here's the deal, I have 12 Dell Optiplex GX520's that are about 8 years old (donated from a University).

I've got Windows XP (as they had the licenses for them) on them and nothing else. These are going to be donated to Foster Children. Ages will range, but we are talking about 12-16 years old. They may or may not be able to go online with them. Depending on the foster family they are staying with.

So I have to presume they won't be online with them much or at all. I'm doing all the work here. I know what I am doing, but I just need some suggestions on software you think would be good for these kids to have pre-installed.

I don't have kids, so don't know what software they have at school.

I'm going with Libre Office as Open office has gone to apache and Libre is a better system in my opinion.
Other basics are:
Adobe Reader, PDF Creator, 7 Zip, Gimp, Infranview, Google Earth, I-Tunes, VLC Player, Audacity,
MS Security Essentials, Malwarebytes, Firefox, chrome (if they go online) and all the usual plugins.

But what else? What educational tools could I put on for these kids? Anything cool they would like that is kid friendly? But it must work offline.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

[altrenda]

while the gimp is fine, I would give them paint.net www.getpaint.net
It is more useful for kids and easier to learn.

Unless they have money to spend or an IOS device, I think iTunes is a waste.

 

[Chilli]

while the gimp is fine, I would give them paint.net www.getpaint.net
It is more useful for kids and easier to learn.

Unless they have money to spend or an IOS device, I think iTunes is a waste.

Thanks. Yeah I decided to add Paint.net with gimp. I-Tunes.. I wasn't sure. I guess it's best to skip it. Thanks.

I think I'll add Winamp instead of Itunes and ImgBurn as they can copy DVDs off these machines.

 

[16k_zx81]

"the anarchists cookbook"

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[Chilli]

"the anarchists cookbook"

.

Oh very f-ing funny.... not

 

[Canadian Tech]

here is a great source of open source educational software https://schoolforge.net/

 

[glricht]

Like many here, I also used to choose between Open Office and Libre Office for a free MS Office alternative.

Until about a month ago.

That's when I became aware of Kingsoft Office Suite Free 2013. http://www.ksosoft.com/product/office-free.html

Free, small and fast, plus you can dynamically switch GUIs between 2003 and ribbons. Has equivalents for Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

YMMV, but it's now my MS Office-alternative of choice.

 

[River Valley Computer]

Gary - we have been looking at theses three products also.
We have following Open Office since its inception. The one thing that our evaluations have discovered is that LibreOffice is the only one that will read and save in Office xlsx and docx formats to be compatible with Office 2007 and up. Are we missing something in Kingsoft that does that on the free version? It looks like the paid version for $69 does provide that.

 

[codegreen]

First off, Google Earth needs to be online to function. You can cache small amounts of map data for offline use, but really the program is designed to be used with an Internet connection.

I've put together quite a few computers for kids. Some free suggestions from my own experience:

Games

• Battle for Wesnoth: a great turn-based strategy game with a sword-and-sorcery theme.
• FlightGear: a high-quality flight simulator. Complex (like flying an airplane), but some kids get into this kind of thing.
• FreeCiv: an open-source clone of Civilization II.
• HedgeWars: an artillery game inspired by Worms. Hedgehogs go to war with each other using a vast array of rather silly weapons.
• LucasChess: a chess program with a built-in tutor, which help you beat progressively stronger opponents.
• Neverball: roll the ball through the obstacle course. Simple game play, very addictive.
• PySolFC: over 1000 solitaire card games.
• SuperTux: a fun Super Mario-style platformer starring Tux the Penguin.

Educational and Projects

• Alice: a drag-and-drop animated system designed to teach programming.
• Anki: a great flashcard program. I use this one myself for learning languages, but it's good for any type of memorization work. Has a cool online component that lets you sync your cards across devices, but works perfectly fine offline.
• Calibre: a powerful ebook management and viewing program. Load it up with free books from Project Gutenberg
• Celestia: a gorgeous space simulator.
• Inkscape: a vector drawing program similiar to Adobe Illustrator. Great for aspiring artists.
• Marble: a virtual globe that can be used offline. You'll have to check out the documentation and download a good offline dataset.
• Scribus: highly functional desktop publishing and layout software. You need to put a little effort into learning it, but it is great for designing posters, newsletters, magazines, flyers, etc.
• Stellarium: planetarium software, shows the night sky from any location on Earth, at any time.

edit: Oh, I almost forgot! Khan Academy Lite is excellent. You get access to most of Khan Academy without an Internet connection. If you've never looked at Khan Academy before, check it out. It's amazing.

 

[glricht]

Gary - we have been looking at theses three products also.
We have following Open Office since its inception. The one thing that our evaluations have discovered is that LibreOffice is the only one that will read and save in Office xlsx and docx formats to be compatible with Office 2007 and up. Are we missing something in Kingsoft that does that on the free version? It looks like the paid version for $69 does provide that.

During testing, it was able to read both old and new formats (e.g. doc, docx, xls, xlsx) just fine. Didn't try saving as docx or xlsx, but 2007 & 2010 reads the older format doc and xls files just fine anyway.

 

[bertie40]

As an adoptive parent, I advise the following : A method of locking down the machine.

I'm making some assumptions here, which may be off the mark, but what the hell.

These kids will hit the social media scene big time, Facebook and the like.

I suggest putting opendns on each machine, and give the foster parent the key. That way, they have more control over what they can and can't do.

Also, its an added method of giving rewards for good behaviour, and consequences for when they go haywire.

Also, add in scheduling, so they can only use the machine between certain times.

Also factor in a decent AV and anti malware product, because kids will blindly click and approve anything.

 

[bipc]

well, have you ever considered moving to a linux platform? Edubuntu? there's even a version that comes full of games and decent ones, since they shoudn't know it they wont be able to mess with the system and you'll get alot less virus, and they come ready with all that you're looking for, from "office" suite to video or music players, and no hassle instaling this and that and is the version right or not and no legal or copyright implications, beside running great on older machines, and time and access control for free also, just pointing out a diferent way

 

[pilch123]

If these laptops are be lent out or going to different places, they can become vulnerable so maybe something like pray project might be good. This will allow the charity or foster parents to the track the laptops if they stolen.