If this is for a present , do the kid a favor , and buy him a chess set . Hopefully someone will teach him how to play and he ' ll take to the game . This is a good age to start kids playing . Girls too . <| sep |> I have a pretty extensive background with computers multiple windowsversions , linux , bsd , solaris , irix , self built rigs , bought rigs , thinkpads , compaqs blah blah , and what I like most about Apple is the software . Mostly , it just works . I ' m happy to pay the premium for something I don ' t have to screw around with , and instead I can just focus on using it and get on with the stuff I have to do . Those neat casedesigns are just a nice bonus . <| sep |> Anyone wanna TLDR this for those of us who don ' t have time to sift through the entire thing ?