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The Free Educational Software GCompris Comes To Android

Posted by timothy on from the approved-for-all-ages dept.

New submitter xarma writes GCompris is a reference in its category on GNU/Linux but also on Windows. Its development started in 2000 in Gtk+. Last year the development team, willing to address the tablet and PC users from a single code base, took the hard decision to fully rewrite it in Qt Quick. The new version is now developed under the KDE community umbrella. After one year of work, a first release has been shipped on the Android play store. Continuing on its original funding approach, it remains free software but requires a fee on proprietary platforms.

3 of 75 comments (clear)

  1. in case you're wondering by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    "gcompris" sounds like "I understand" in French, where the letter G sounds like "j'ai", "I have".

    Maybe everyone knew, but it's the first time I hear of this project.

  2. Re:Useless summary is useless by huftis · · Score: 3, Informative

    I had to fire up a search engine to figure out what the software is all about. Turns out submitter is in good company, as the software's own website is similarly vague about what it does and why I'd want it.

    I agree that the description in the blurb is quite vague. But a picture speaks more than a thousand words, and I think a video is even better, so here’s a three-minute video showing GCompris in action (it’s the same video that you get when you click the video link on the Google Play page). It doesn’t show all (currently 88) different games/activities in GCompris, but it should give you a pretty good idea about what the software is about.

  3. I successfully used it in a summer camp by gr8dude · · Score: 3

    I've used GCompris (among other tools) last year in a summer camp for children from socially vulnerable families. It was a project powered by volunteers and donations.

    The kids enjoyed it very much, due to the variety of activities available - everyone found something to tinker with. If you're interested, have a look at the photos: http://tinco.md/galerie, https://www.facebook.com/TINCO....

    Children liked TuxType and Scratch too, but GCompris ranked #1, especially among the younger ones.

    Some youngsters in Moldova had a great summer; and who knows - maybe a few of them will build careers related to computers. And that could be your fault (-:

    p.s. I am glad it runs on Android now, I've already recommended it to a parent.

    --
    The saddest poem