Viewing topic First PC for children, which apps should I install?

Title: First PC for children, which apps should I install?

Acrophobic 1 Apr 2022

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Hi everyone,

My niece is 6 years old now so I'm planning to give her a PC to play around. Usually she just play on my PC whenever I take a break, so I guess it's a good time to give her own PC.

For more info, right now she loves to use Paint3D in Windows since she can just drag and drop model from internet. She also hates FPS or any game with high motion speed since apparently it make her dizzy. She also a bit struggling with 3D games like Minecraft.

With that said, which apps or games should I install on her PC? Here is my list right now:

Firefox, for browsing YouTube.

Asset Forge and all Kenney apps, since it's simple and fun to use.

Tiled or LDtk, because it's fun to draw map using assets from Kenney.

Gimp for generic drawing.

SweetHome3D, since it only drag and drops as well.

As you can see, it's still too limited so I'm looking forward to your suggestions. My only requirements are it should be light enough to run in a old PC and not online based.

Thanks!

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furaxhornyx 1 Apr 2022

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Maybe Krita is better than Gimp for generic drawing / painting ?

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Pengling 1 Apr 2022

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Quoting: AcrophobicShe also hates FPS or any game with high motion speed since apparently it make her dizzy. She also a bit struggling with 3D games like Minecraft.

I'm a grown adult and first-person games make me feel sick unless they're very abstract (i.e., GoldenEye 007, Minecraft, Bendy and the Ink Machine), so I can relate! :dizzy:

Games-wise, the first one that springs to mind for me is SuperTux, because I've never set up a Linux box without installing it. In my experience, it's easy enough for that age-group to pick up, though of course there's the downsides that it's not yet finished and that the difficulty-curve isn't always the smoothest... It runs decently on a Raspberry Pi 4, so I'm guessing that an older x86 PC wouldn't have any issues with it.

Would the terminal-based BSD Games package be of interest? Some of those are quite accessible since they only use simple inputs and usually aren't fast-moving. My own favourites here are the money-chase game Snake, the classic eat-yourself-to-death game Worm, and the computerised versions of Hangman and Boggle - though unfortunately Boggle can allow words that you might not want youngsters asking about, and it will display all words that you missed when you finish a round. Perhaps there are more suitable graphical versions of some of these available, though? (I've never needed to look!)

Quoting: furaxhornyxMaybe Krita is better than Gimp for generic drawing / painting ?

Or Tux Paint, also? :smile:

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denyasis 1 Apr 2022

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Hello;

A little while back there was a discussion on games for kids (around that age range)

link

I'll also add:
A Short Hike - it's a very chill expiration game. You might have to help with the text depending on reading skill.

My 6yo absolutely loves Minecraft. Mostly plays creative and makes houses and obstacle courses. A lot of it she gets from watching let's plays and streamers on YouTube (and her older brother helps with some of the text).

Probably by far her favorite game.

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GustyGhost 3 Apr 2022

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Set it up with a good blacklisting hosts file against adult content.

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StevenBlack/hosts/master/alternates/porn/hosts
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Sinfonietta/hostfiles/master/pornography-hosts

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