Tsien Dobry Pan Wojciech,

  WP> ...the worse and cheaper computers are available, the higher is
    > a chance of educating competent programmers/admis etc.
    >
    > at least in polish school.

Perhaps, but does it /inspire/ anyone?  In my last few years of
secondary school (= high school) in Britain, Acorn Archimedes
computers (see NetBSD/arm26 ;-) began to appear in the computer room.
Acorn jumped (almost) straight from the 8-bit 6502 to a 32-bit RISC
that they had developed (the A in ARM originally stood for Acorn,
before it spun off into a life of its own).  Having seen what those
could do, I was always rather under-impressed by the PC.

The PC has improved in many ways over the years, and the fact that
they're built in such huge numbers has probably helped to bring down
the cost of some components that other machines can use.  There are
still plenty of things that I don't like about the PC, but I work with
them a lot because of "the dumpster factor".

Machines like the Archimedes (and other computers for other reasons)
inspired me to learn more about the technologies involved.  It has
never stopped since I left school.  They also continue to 'raise the
bar' of what I expect and want from computers.

Regards,
  - Andy Ball.
/