Educational games are games designed to teach people, typically children, about a certain subject or help them learn a skill as they play. Sometimes this type of software is known as games edutainment because they combine education and entertainment.
This type of software aids the ‘normal’ learning process, either by helping the individual to absorb new information, or as a support for recalling information already learned. Educational programs, especially those for the youngest students, are often designed with the idea of ‘learn through play’. Many children are easily bored, and they are much more likely to be attentive if they find the activity or task to be enjoyable.
Linux has many attributes which make it an ideal platform to run educational games. This type of software typically runs perfectly well on older hardware. It makes little sense for an elementary school to purchase state-of-the-art computers, just so that the operating system (e.g. Windows 11) runs at a reasonable speed when the educational software itself is much less demanding. Moreover, as the vast majority of Linux distributions are available to download at no cost, parents and schools have more reason to provide a full complement of software and student learning materials even in these financially troubled times.
We have compiled a list of 10 high quality Linux educational games/suites that all have the virtue of being free to play. The selection is predominately aimed at a young target audience, but the software nevertheless offers a wide variety of learning experiences.
Here’s our recommendations captured in a legendary ratings chart.
Let’s explore the 10 open source educational games at hand. For each application we have compiled its own portal page, a full description with an in-depth analysis of its features, screenshots, together with links to relevant resources. Help your children develop by combining learning and having fun at the same time.
| Educational Games | |
|---|---|
| GCompris | Educational games for small children |
| Colobot | Educational game aiming to teach programming |
| Childsplay | Suite of educational games for young children |
| KDE Education Project | Educational applications from KDE |
| JClic | Create, play and evaluate multimedia educational activities |
| TuxMath | Math game for kids with Tux |
| Piano Booster | Boost your piano playing skills |
| Dr. Geo | Educational oriented interactive geometry |
| Omnitux | Educational activities based on multimedia elements |
| Tux Typing | Educational Typing Tutor Game Starring Tux, the Linux Penguin |
Read our complete collection of recommended free and open source software. The collection covers all categories of software. The software collection forms part of our series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. There's tons of in-depth reviews, alternatives to Google, fun things to try, hardware, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. |