GCompris 26.0 Arrives As one of the most powerful versions of this well-known educational suite from the KDE ecosystem, designed for children between 2 and 10 years old, this is not just a minor update: it brings new activities, internal improvements, more supported languages, and, above all, a tool specifically designed for teachers that promises to change how the program is used in the classroom.
If you work in education, have young children, or are simply interested in Free software for learning through playThis version is worth taking a few minutes to look at. Throughout this article, you'll see what GCompris 26.0 offers, how to install it on GNU/Linux (including specific instructions for the 64-bit installer), what GCompris-teachers is exactly, which languages ​​are supported, and on which platforms you can enjoy all these features.
What is GCompris and who is it for?
GCompris is a collection of educational applications Designed for children aged approximately 2 to 10 years old. Its central idea is clear: to offer fun activities that look like games, but with a strong educational component behind them, so that children learn while having fun in front of the computer or tablet.
This project is part of the KDE community, although it maintains a own independent release cycleTraditionally, it released one major version per year with some maintenance updates, but for some time now it has adopted a very simple numbering system, associated with the year of publication and a single major update in the middle of the year, which makes it easier to understand what stage of development the project is at.
Originally, GCompris was programmed in C and Python using GTK+Starting in 2014, when its developers announced its full integration as a KDE Community project, a thorough rewrite in C++ and QML was undertaken, adopting Qt as its underlying technology. This has resulted in a more modern, fluid, and easily portable application for different platforms.
Categories of activities and practical examples
The suite groups its proposals into different thematic categories of activitiesso that teachers or families can select at any time the type of learning they want to reinforce. Some of the main areas included in GCompris are the following:
- Discovery of the computerExercises to learn how to use the keyboard, mouse, or touchscreen. Ideal for young children to become familiar with the basic operation of a computer.
- Reading and languageActivities with letters, words, guided reading exercises and text writing, designed to reinforce reading comprehension and written expression.
- Arithmetic and mathematics: number games, basic operations, memorization of tables, enumeration and double-entry tables, which serve to consolidate early mathematical skills.
- ScienceInteractive proposals that explain processes such as a canal lock, the water cycle or renewable energies, bringing scientific concepts closer in a visual way.
- Geography and cultureActivities to learn about countries, regions, and basic cultural aspects of different parts of the world.
- Logic and strategy gamesFrom chess to memory games, connect four, the classic hangman or tic-tac-toe, all of them aimed at working on concentration and reasoning.
- Other learnings: exercises on colors and shapes, introduction to the braille alphabet, or activities to learn to read the time on an analog clock.
On the whole, tool widely used in educational settings, including its integration into distributions specifically designed for schools, such as LliureX in the Valencian Community, where it is part of the basic educational software set.
Main new features of GCompris 26.0
Version 26.0 represents a step forward in both content and additional features. In this edition, the development team has included a total of 197 different activitiesThis figure alone demonstrates the scope of the project. Within this framework, two specific new developments have been added:
- Drawing wheelsThis activity focuses on creating drawings using a gear that rotates inside a toothed wheel. It's a visual and creative activity that allows children to experiment with geometric patterns and symmetries.
- multiple choice questionsThis is a multiple-choice quiz-based activity. By default, it is hidden and only becomes visible when GCompris-teachers is involved, which is the entity that sends specific datasets to this activity.
In addition to these two additions, version 26.0 integrates bug fixes and major improvements in several of the existing activities, refining both the user experience and the overall stability of the program.
Another noteworthy aspect of this release is the work in the linguistic field: [the following appears to be a separate, unrelated section:] New translations into Kannada and Tamil, thus expanding the international reach of the tool and bringing it closer to more educational communities around the world.
GCompris-teachers: the big news for teachers
Undoubtedly, the main focus of this version is the first official edition of GCompris-teachersIt's a complementary application that integrates with GCompris and is specifically designed for teachers. This is where the project takes a significant leap forward in how it's used in the classroom.
GCompris-teachers allows teachers create custom datasets for some GCompris activities and, in addition, receive the results obtained by the students. In this way, it is not only limited to offering predefined exercises, but also opens the door to designing materials adapted to the curriculum and the level of each group.
Among the possibilities that this tool offers to teachers, the following key functions are included in more detail:
- Student group managementIt allows you to create and organize groups of students within the application, making it easier to work by specific classes, cycles, or levels.
- Creation of customized work plansThe teacher can design sequences of activities or sets of exercises that respond to specific pedagogical objectives.
- Connecting and sending plans to studentsThe plans developed can be sent directly to the defined groups, so that each student receives the activities that correspond to them.
- Review of individual and group resultsThe system allows you to check both the overall performance of a group and the details for each student, which helps to identify specific reinforcement needs.
- Response AnalysisTeachers can study how students have responded to the different items, identifying error patterns, concepts not assimilated, or areas that require more work.
This tool, being relatively new and quite comprehensive, may require a adaptation period by teachers. However, it opens the door to a much more systematic use of GCompris as a stable resource within the classroom, beyond free play or specific activities.
Translation statuses and available languages
Another strength of GCompris 26.0 is its extensive language support, which makes it easier to use. in very diverse environments Without language barriers. In this version, the program is fully translated into a remarkable set of languages.
The languages ​​for which the translation is 100% complete are: Arabic, Bulgarian, Breton, Catalan, Catalan (Valencian), Greek, Spanish, Basque, French, Hebrew, Croatian, Italian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Malayalam, Dutch, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Slovenian, Albanian, Swedish, Turkish and UkrainianIn all these cases, both the interface and the educational content can be enjoyed entirely in the chosen language.
Furthermore, GCompris is partially translated into many other languageswith very high percentages that already allow for quite comfortable use, although some texts remain pending. These include: Azerbaijani (87%), Belarusian (83%), Czech (98%), German (92%), British English (96%), Esperanto (96%), Estonian (86%), Finnish (91%), Galician (97%), Hungarian (97%), Indonesian (98%), Georgian (88%), Kannada (85%), Macedonian (81%), Nynorsk Norwegian (89%), Portuguese (85%), Romanian (97%), Russian (97%), Sanskrit (97%), Slovak (78%), Swahili (88%), Tamil (84%), and Traditional Chinese (85%).
The KDE community actively encourages more people to collaborate to Complete existing translations and add new languages.To this end, an online translator's guide is available, explaining the process of contributing to the GCompris project within the KDE infrastructure. Any user willing to help can join and improve localization in their language.
Available platforms and packages
GCompris 26.0 is distributed in multiple operating systemsThis makes it easy to use in virtually any context, both at home and in educational centers that use diverse technologies.
The developers provide packages for GNU/Linux, Windows, Android and Raspberry Pi directly from the official download page. The updated version will also be available on the Google Play Store for Android, the F-Droid repository, and the Microsoft Store for Windows, simplifying installation on many devices.
Some distribution channels also mention macOS packagesTherefore, those who use Apple computers can also benefit from the program, although the specific availability depends on the status of each package and the release schedule on each platform.
Installation on GNU/Linux: standalone packages and requirements
The project offers different ways to install GCompris. First, it is recommended to check if the The distribution itself has an updated package in their official repositories. In many modern distributions, it is enough to install the GCompris package from the usual software manager.
If your distribution does not have the latest version, the GCompris developers provide standalone packages for Linux These should work on any relatively modern system, without depending on the specific packaging of each distribution. For the 64-bit version, the minimum requirements are: Linux kernel 4.18 and glibc 2.28.
For those still working with 32-bit systems, a solution remains available. Previous version of GCompris (4.3.1) for 32-bit LinuxIn this case, the minimum requirements include a Linux kernel 3.10, glibc 2.17, pulseaudio and gstreamer 1.0, allowing its use on older computers.
How to install GCompris 26.0 on Linux 64-bit using the installer
If you choose the standalone package for 64-bit GNU/Linux, the installation procedure is quite simple and is performed from the command lineThe basic steps, once the installer has been downloaded, would be the following:
- Download the corresponding file, for example a file called gcompris-qt-26.0-Linux64.shand save it in a folder of your choice.
- Open a terminal in that directory. You can do this from the file explorer or by navigating with the appropriate command.
- Grant execution permissions to the installer by running:
chmod u+x gcompris-qt-26.0-Linux64.sh - Start the installation process with:
./gcompris-qt-26.0-Linux64.sh
During the process, the software license will be displayed. You can Read it calmly or press the q key To skip it. Next, the installer will ask several questions about the location and installation details; simply answer "yes" to the default prompts if you don't have any special configuration needs.
Upon completion, the software will be installed on a new folder located next to the installer itselfTo run GCompris, you will need to open that new directory, enter the bin subfolder and double-click on the script called gcompris-qt.sh, or launch it from the terminal.
Solution to problems with OpenGL and rendering
On some devices, especially those that do not have adequate support for OpenGL 2 If your system has problematic graphics drivers, GCompris might not function correctly using hardware acceleration. For these cases, the project proposes a couple of simple solutions.
The first step is to add the option –software-renderer at the end of the last line of the gcompris-qt.sh script. This forces the program to use software rendering, thus avoiding conflicts with graphics acceleration.
Alternatively, you can also modify the configuration file The program's configuration file is located at ~/.config/gcompris-qt/gcompris-qt.conf. Within this file, find the line that reads renderer=auto, change the value from auto to software, and save the changes. On the next startup, GCompris will permanently use software rendering mode.
Installation from Flathub and Snap
In addition to standalone installers, GCompris can be easily installed on GNU/Linux using universal package platforms such as Flathub (for Flatpak) or the Snap Store. This option is usually very convenient in modern distributions that already include support for these formats.
Installing GCompris via Flathub or Snap has the advantage that The application is kept up to date without the user having to keep track of each version. The package system itself takes care of downloading new revisions when the computer is regularly updated.
License, community and project spirit
Like all KDE software, GCompris is distributed under a open source license which allows its use, study, modification, and redistribution. This facilitates its adoption in educational institutions, as it does not involve licensing costs or usage restrictions so common in proprietary solutions.
The community behind the project, made up of developers, translators, designers, and teachers, maintains a constant activity to improve the programThis includes adding new activities, fixing bugs, and supporting more languages ​​and platforms. Anyone interested can contribute, whether by programming, translating, testing versions, or reporting errors.
Those who enjoy software localization or want to help bring GCompris to more children in their language can find Specific documentation for translating the project within the KDE development environment. It explains how to join translation teams and what tools are used.
Overall, GCompris 26.0 represents a solid evolution of a well-established educational suite, which combines nearly two hundred activities for children with a powerful new tool for teachers, broad language coverage, availability on multiple platforms and an open development model that favors its adoption in all types of educational contexts, from homes to schools, speech therapy clinics and institutional projects.
