Computers for children

All, The perfect computer for a child? A NeXT Station, complete with Developer software if you can get it. NeXTStep Version 3.3 is fine (minor Y2K fixes needed), Openstep 4.2 would be better. A monochrome slab, 16M RAM/400M Disk ought to be about $200 (Hmm... <surf, surf> Deepspace Technologies (http://www.deepspacetech.com/)is selling them for $135, but no Developer software). There are Spreadsheets, Word Processors, Web Browsers, and Presentation Packages available for it for *free* (download from a web site, no-cost license for single users). The Development environment runs Objective-C, a completely OO system which is carried right through the entire operating system. Regular C supported too (but I don't think C++ or Pascal.) The experience starts with an easy, gui interface and progresses easily right up to Mach UNIX. Networking is built-in ethernet, with GUI configuration tools (work great with other NeXTs) and Unix command-line accessibility if you want more complicated stuff. Mathematica will run on it, though that costs a *lot* unless you are lucky enough to get it included on your machine. There's also a fair amount of music software as well, which I can't really comment on because I don't know much about it. It's big, rugged (well, the mouse cable and kb cable are a bit vulnerable) and impressive. Best of all, there are not very many games that run on it. :-) - Mark