Computers for children

This'll probably offend many. I think that an 8 year old would be best off with a machine with CD-ROM capability. And a good size stack of reference disks, including Encyclopedia Brittanica, atlases, and several collections of literature. There should also be WWW access, preferably with at least minimal graphics capability. If you really want to splurge, a cheap color inkjet printer. For programming, I would recommend BASIC, TO START WITH, followed by an introduction to C and assembly as soon as basic principles are understood. In the PC world, that would call for 386SX with VGA video, and DOS 3.10 or above. (preferably 6.2x) I would also recommend Windoze Notepad and Windoze Write for word processing. Once the kid has gotten thoroughly into it, THEN maybe a birthday present of a set of Linux disks? How much more than a C64 would a generic 386 AT cost? Do you need some of us to contribute some parts? -- Fred Cisin cisin(a)xenosoft.com XenoSoft http://www.xenosoft.com 2210 Sixth St. (510) 644-9366 Berkeley, CA 94710-2219