I just bought a couple of fairly reasonable spec (they’ve been upgraded) G3 iMacs for my kids to use in their bedrooms for homework and entertainment.
They run OSX Tiger and I’ve already installed Firefox, Adium (instant messaging client) and NeoOffice (mostly for the homework).
I want to install a few other interesting things for them - maybe some graphics and music stuff, games, educational software, etc. They’re aged 11 and (nearly)9
Any suggestions? Free software only, as there’s no budget at all.
Oh, meant to mention… I can’t install anything that requires X11, as it isn’t installed and the machines were sold to me without any install media - which seems to be the only way to get X11. I’d love to be able to install Inkscape, but it’s not possible at the moment.
You may visit MacUpdate for a few interesting programs. Also try Versiontracker.
It’s a good start.
Apple has this thing called iTunes that I think plays music… 
They can use iTunes to organize their own music and to even share libraries with eachother. They can also get free clips, I think. Just be careful if you let them use your credit card to buy music - iTunes lets you save your CC info to make it REALLY easy to buy in the future with the click of a button.
Oh, yes. ITunes was already installed and they found that straight away. Forgot to mention it - sorry.
JView is a simple, fast jpeg viewer that I like.
There’s a thing called flip4mac that lets you view WMV movies using the Quicktime Player. I prefer this solution over using the Windows media player, which you can also get free for a Mac.
If you have a Tivo and you can connect it to the Internet, the Imacs or some sort of local network, you might want to get Tivo Desktop for Mac. It lets you view your iPhoto picture collection on the Tivo, and also play songs from Itunes. (It only plays mp3s, but I’m told there’s a way to get it to play AAC files if they don’t have any DRM.) There’s also a hidden feature to view some mpeg movies from your computer on the Tivo.
Audacity and Sound Studio are a couple programs that let you record sound, edit sound files, and apply effects to them. I can’t say if one is better than the other, but either should be fun to play with especially if the computer has a built-in microphone. I’m not sure if Tiger comes with anything like that from Apple.
I got something called Software for Starving Students which has a bunch of programs including the clunky X11 version of OpenOffice. I’ve only used a few things, as some of them are clunky Unix type things. There are a few simple games, and a few educational programs, such as Stellarium which is supposed to show you your current night sky. Some of the software is utilities that you wouldn’t want to let a kid use though (especially Tweak Freak), so you’d have to pick out what to keep.
Are the G3s at least 500 MHz, and do they have a broadband connection to the net? If so, they might like an app called OSXplanet, which is a dynamic desktop image app. I have my work Mac currently set up to show the Earth, and recent volcanic eruptions and storms; it’s set to update every half hour or so, so you can see the terminus crossing over the face of the Earth (and nighttime areas will display city lights). You can change the paper projections, cities shown, all kinds of stuff. You can also decide to show the Sun, any of the other planets or the Moon, though there are fewer viewing options for those. It doesn’t “do” a lot, but it’s very cool to have it in front of you.
There’s also an app called Stellarium, that will show you the night sky for your date and location. Stars, constellations, nebulae are all labeled, so it’s a fun way to learn something about astronomy if the kids are interested.
Yes and yes - I’ll check out your suggestions - thanks.
I will probably install Audacity on them, as I’ve used that a fair bit myself in Windows and Linux and I think it’s great. I do also want to install some music creation software on there - Garageband would be good (esp as they use it at school), but it isn’t free, and it won’t run on G3 processors. Any suggestions in that direction would be great.