> > 
> > Ruby? Java?
> 
> Fortran is out, Ruby & Java are in.

Which Java? Personally, I would rather install on upcoming developer's
the J2SE 1.4.2 SDK with the Netbeans IDE (3.5.1)...the rather large (90
Megabytes!) co-bundled installer for Linux is pretty easy to install.
Most books and tutorials on the web assume the Sun IDE with official Sun
SDK. It would be nice if they were also informed of the alternatives to
Sun's Java. 

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/download.html clicking on the Linux .bin
link brings you to this:
http://java.sun.com/webapps/download/Display, which i haven't studied,
but i'm assuming that installee's must view and agree to before it is
installed. Burning a few cd's with the co-bundle package would be nice.