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It is especially good for younger kids but has alot of apps for older
kids as well. http://www.qimo4kids.com/
All the other ones I personally tried out seemed to have problems
with sound cards, booting, etc....

I was brought up on one of those...and had to have it replaced (got a free replacement and game after writing a letter). The programs on the TI994A crashed, fairly often although I loved the thing. Also, does it make sense to expose a child to a platform whose design doesn't reflect today's computer platform foundation? The TI 994a cartridge system doesn't reflect the way systems work now and good luck finding that GIANT expansion module add-on module with the floppy disk drive. (Considering how small the cartridge memory space and Floppy disks were that is a LOT of physical hardware to store). Easier/smaller to just get an old PC and put a Linux distro on it, perhaps one like qimo4kids http://www.qimo4kids.com/ or DouDou Linux http://www.doudoulinux.org?

I did some research into this topic awhile ago. Here is a list depending on the age group:

3-7: GCompris (http://gcompris.net/-en-) *** Best ***, KDE Education software (http://edu.kde.org/), Tux Software Series (http://tux4kids.alioth.debian.org/), TuxPaint, TuxMath, TuxType all excellent, Omnitux (overlaps with Gcompris) (http://omnitux.sourceforge.net/), SuperTuxCart (no education just game) (http://supertuxkart.sourceforge.net/), SuperTux(http://supertux.lethargik.org/) (entertainment only), Secret Maryo (similar to Super Mario, pure entertainment, no educational value) (http://www.secretmaryo.org/), Frozen Bubbles (pure game, no real education here)(http://www.frozen-bubble.org/), Crayon Physics Deluxe (commercial, puzzle game)(http://www.crayonphysics.com/)

6-14: Scratch (teaches computer programming in an amazingly intuitive way..had 11 year old figure it out with no computer background and no experience) (http://scratch.mit.edu/), Alice (teaches 3d art), (http://www.alice.org/index.php?page=downloads/download_alice), World Of Goo (commercial, puzzle solving)(http://www.2dboy.com ), Trine/Trine 2 (commercial, puzzle solving)(http://http://trine-thegame.com/site/) (good for developing puzzle solving skills..good graphics), Greenfoot (teaches Java to pre-teens similar way to Scratch) (http://www.greenfoot.org/door), Cogs (Commercial puzzle game) (http://www.cogsgame.com/), DreamChess (Stragety...its chess)(http://www.dreamchess.org/), E-Adventure (teaches people to make their own point/click adventure games) (http://e-adventure.e-ucm.es/), Gbrainy (Math/logic games) (https://live.gnome.org/gbrainy), Inkscape (Vector Graphics..works well with Scratch/Alice as teaching tool and book)(http://www.inkscape.org), And Yet It Moves (Commercial puzzle/alternative physics) (http://www.andyetitmoves.net/), Machinarium (Commercial, flash adventure game..great for kids) http://machinarium.net/demo/, Minecraft (semi-commercial, install on Linux may not be straightforward) (https://minecraft.net/), Botanicula (Commercial, Flash adventure Game)(http://botanicula.net/)

Most of the non-commercial games listed above are readily available hrough the software game channels of most Linux Distros including Ubuntu, Mint (I've confirmed all on Mint), Fedora and Debian. I included links in case for some reason the user friendly Software Install Dialogs in Ubuntu/Mint or default Synpatic Package manager channel configuration doesn't do the trick. The commercial ones come in various installers, most user friendly but a few you may need to make a menu launcher manually.

Children specific OS Distros: I've never tried these but it may simplify your OS installations with pre-installed game/activities: http://www.doudoulinux.org/web/english/index.html ***(this looks VERY good for kindergarden first timers on a computer)*** http://www.qimo4kids.com/what-is-qimo/ http://www.edubuntu.org/ http://www.foresightlinux.org/release/foresight-kids-edition-1-0-release-notes/

Recommend all purposes Distro for early starters (6-and up): http://www.linuxmint.org/ (Not education specific but software installation menus make it easy to find/try educational and non-educational games...ubuntu does to but Mint makes it easier for non-techies...have 9-12 year old using it with no training...no problem)

other list of games for Linux are here: http://www.linuxlinks.com/article/20080510052539217/Games.html http://www.linuxlinks.com/article/20080522164112313/Games-Part2.html

While educ

Depending on the age of the kids involved I recommend QIMO
http://www.qimo4kids.com/

It's at: http://www.qimo4kids.com/
Based on Xubuntu, but simply boots into a kid friendly environment with lots of games, paint programs, educational programs etc.
When the kid takes an interest it's possible to back out and log into the normal Xubuntu desktop.

My daughter (6) LOVES http://www.qimo4kids.com/

Its really nice and can be ran self contained via USB

Maybe even try some of these, who knows you might even learn something new and exciting!

http://www.qimo4kids.com/page/What-is-Qimo.aspx

http://hubpages.com/hub/Linux-for-your-kids

I don't see anybody else mentioning it so I'll say that I have Qimo installed for my preschooler http://www.qimo4kids.com/ It's not perfect but it's a good start.

There is a distro aimesd specifically at toddlers called Qimo. I haven't tried it myself, but it looks pretty cute, and if I were in a position to give a computer to a toddler, it's what I would go with.

Qimo for Kids is a Linux distro specifically aimed at that age-group. I haven't tried it myself, but it looks cute enough. (I think it must have been featured on /. a few months ago, or how would I know about it?)

How about install http://www.qimo4kids.com/

While not as light-weight at DSL, Qimo provides an educational Linux desktop that runs reasonably well on older hardware.

Disclaimer: I am the developer of Qimo.

Heh, funny. That was my non-artistic design, supposed to be a blend of the Ubuntu logo and the letter Q.

We're getting new art, made by a real artist. See http://www.qimo4kids.com/ for a preview.

Please send us feedback (email is on the website) on Qimo. We're going to be releasing our final 1.0 version very soon with much better artwork. Watch http://www.qimo4kids.com/ for our future website for the distro.