[ubuntu-uk] serious advice

[Rob Beard]

Dave Morley wrote:
> On Wed, 2007-11-14 at 09:50 +0000, norman wrote:
>> I am contemplating buying my 9 year old granddaughter a new PC for
>> Christmas. Presently, she has a fairly old PC and has been using Windows
>> both at home and at school. (I hear cries of shame). She is of course
>> familiar with Ubuntu when she uses my machine and it would be my
>> intention to wean her onto Ubuntu on her new machine. Where I need
>> advice is in selecting the best way to enable her to join in with her
>> classmates, if and when she may need to, with regard to such things as
>> educational games and suchlike which do not play on Linux.
>>
>> I know of Wine and Crossover Office but neither of these appear to be
>> what is needed. So, fellow Ubuntu users, what would you advise an old
>> codger to do.
>>
>> Norman
>>
>>
> Why not install Ubuntu/Edubuntu in dual boot on the machine she already
> has and ask her which she prefers?
> 
> A lot of the on line edu game run in flash which is available.  This
> only leaves the cd based games.  Wine should run the majority of them as
> they don't actual pull that much power from the system so why not try
> them on your machine and when your happy that they work transfer them to
> your daughters. 
> 

I've found that educational games are a mixed bag (I have three 
daughters aged 7, 5 and 18 months).  I have one set of educational 
programs called something like 'PC Click and Learn'  which is created 
using some Macromedia package (not Flash or Shockwave, I think it's 
Authorware or something like that).  These programs wouldn't work under 
Wine.  I got sound but no graphics.

On the other hand I have a Reader Rabbit Keystage CD from about 
1999/2000 and that works well (apart from no music unless I setup Timidity).

Would it not be possible to install something like VirtualBox and then 
run Windows 98 or XP on top of that, or as mentioned before, dual boot 
XP and Ubuntu?

Maybe you could give her a few copies of The OpenEducationDisc to give 
out to her friends as Christmas presents?  They could all then get to 
grips with things like TuxPaint, TuxTyping and TuxMath (actually, I'm 
not sure if they're all on there, I've been working on a custom branded 
OpenDisc of my own which I'm going to distribute in my local area).

Rob