GeekDad Community's Top Software for Old Computers

Hello everyone. I'm starting this forum discussion in order to compose a recommended software list for repurposing old computers. I would like to generate a list of the top recommended software over the next few weeks, and then put it out there as a blog post. If the idea floats, someone else from the GeekDad Community can come along after a while, run a forum query, update the list, and blog it. 

I'm just going to throw this out there. We are looking for software that is ideally free, cross-platform, and fairly robust in terms of working with old hardware and old operating systems. We may find that we have to break the list down into platform specific lists, but let's see what we come up with first.

Pierre Cardoux has already posted a forum query about programming software for kids. Can we come up with a broader list of applications?

Again, we're looking for:

  • free
  • cross-platform
  • robust

Thanks

Tags: cross-platform, education, old computers, software

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Robert Ferguson on March 24, 2012 at 10:56am

Just to kick this off:

The two mainstays in our house have been Tux Paint (great for four and five year olds), and Scratch.

Permalink Reply by Robert Ferguson on March 24, 2012 at 8:03pm

Hmmm. I seem to be speaking to myself. 

I've been poking around and in addition to the software mentioned in Pierre Cardoux's thread, I've come across a number of titles. I'm wondering if anyone would care to discuss the merits (thumbs up, down?) of the following:

Thanks

Permalink Reply by Daniel Donahoo on March 26, 2012 at 7:18pm

It isn't old, but surely the size of Minecraft makes it a good contender.

Plus, while not teaching specific programming, the sandbox nature of the tool and thinking through design and structure help form basic primciples of programming for younger kids.

And yes - Scratch, definitely.

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