What would an actual educational computer look like in the modern age? A Raspberry Pi 3 Plus or a BeagleBoner Big Red Knot Edition is basically just a Linux PC with a funny architecture. Linux is a huge mess, and is only fruitful to poke through if you're a seasoned computer engineer with a built-up tolerance for the bodges that have gone into making it "practical" and "performant". Any default GUI on a distro you can basically just stumble through intuitively, fat lot of good that does some kid in terms of learning anything more than how to operate a mouse. GCC and clang are thoroughly impenetrable, as is even the modern state of C.
So, what? Some kid, under supervision, has some shitty little board plugged in with HDMI, a USB keyboard/mouse set, and writes a python script using pre-made library calls, and he makes some stupid little LEDs on a breakout board blink via GPIO. Big fucking whoop, he goes back to the shitty Chinese ANDROID TABLET FOR KIDS or hand-me-down iPad, or, God fucking forbid, his smartphone, and he can play a much more engaging few levels of whatever cool new mobile game.
Is it possible to recreate the environment of the early PC boom, so that it's possible for a kid to get fascinated enough to slowly but surely work up to writing a program or something? Or are all his reward circuits already so fried that it's just thoroughly boring compared to the pretty shapes and colours he can summon with the tap of an icon?
Fuck me, I want the kids born in the past few years to be excelling me by leaps and bounds by the time I retire. What pathway does there exist for that to actually happen?
What would an actual educational computer look like in the modern age...
I'd honestly be amazed if you were even alive in the '90s with this absolutely deluded garbage you just shit all over my screen.
>actual educational computer
>Raspberry Pi
kek
exactly what it is
>open, because you have to study the components
>Linux, as a great thing to tinker with
>tons of materials on how to do X with RPi
>has GPIO for projects
>tiny
Pretty much is even though it's a massive piece of shit, but so were the "actual educational computers" in the '80s that OP is jerking off about. Had the proper industry standards and technology existed, they'd have been cheap SBCs as well.
And what exactly did the 80s PCs do that is unachievable today?
Be old enough to be fetishized or totally forgotten to the point that you can morph them into whatever fits your retarded inconsistent worldview.
I unironically got into Linux thanks to my dad getting me a first gen rpi
Even the most educational computer is not worth a penny when you use to do shit on it.
Didn't have enough gayymes so some kids learned to use computer to have fun. Now that there are so many ways to get instant gratification, nobody wastes time with tinkering.
>Didn't have enough gayymes
Lol, nope. If they wanted to, they could've treated them as gayming consoles and many did.
The key was simplicity and ubiquity. Those computers were so simple they could've been understood thoroughly down to the hardware level quite literally even by a kid (accessibility of resources allowing a kid to do so is another thing, but still, there were plenty of magazines back then which did just that). Basic served as a good, welcoming intro. And everyone having basically the same or very similar shit helped too.
The problem nowadays isn't accessibility of easy to understand materials, but the complexity of the domain. Kids back then grew together with the technology as features were introduced. Kids today are thrown in between so many abstraction layers and choices they're unaware of they don't even know where to begin with. Just look at one of those "I want to learn programming, where do I start" threads and how insane they are.
This is basically the reason why you can't answer the OPs question "What would an actual educational computer look like in the modern age?". There is no one all around computer for that, maybe a PC, but still not the best pick for hardware stuff. For that it would be better to grab an arduino, a dev board with a programmer or even a breadboard or a couple of perfboards with some micros and a few components and peripherals and learning their assemblies and some C. But I bet most of them aren't interested in computer architecture anyway, even if they think they are, because at this level you don't even have the knowledge to know what you're really interested in.
just install templeos
>templeos
this meme will die in a month or so as people will lose interest as there is no more a defenseless freak to make jokes and laugh at
Just thinking aloud here, but how about a RISC-V computer running 9front? Maybe in a portable form factor with keyboard and screen. Something like the Dragonbox Pyra, or Neo900 as far as design. Making the hardware and software as free as possible would also be good.
this pretty much
the only way to learn how a computer works nowadays is to get something super basic and very well understood, like a Z80, where you can even find transistor diagrams for the thing and books upon books for every single thing about it
even though I wrote that post you're referring to, I disagree with:
>the only way to learn how a computer works nowadays is to get something super basic and very well understood, like a Z80
sure, you will learn something, but ultimately you will be learning a depreciated technology. And you could spend you time more efficiently learning something more relevant today, like taking a computer architecture class. Knowing old architectures is beneficial for such a course though.
It's the closest you can get to 80s PCs.
Also, it has built-in interpreter.
the problem is it's no relevant
imho it's often way better to learn something relevant even if it's not perfect for educational purposes rather than learning irrelevant "playgrounds" prepared specifically for educational purposes.
surely those with an interest would run into it on the internet and figure it out themselves
nobody pushed me towards computers, i got second hand machines years before we even had a family computer (this was before any of us has cellphones or the like)
i also didn't have internet access before that family computer
>imho it's often way better to learn something relevant even if it's not perfect for educational purposes
fucking raspberry pi, man, but you decide to bitch and create this thread
Keep your kids away from all forms of digital entertainment until they're a teenager at least. Don't ruin them with "Shut up and watch YouTube". I wish every second I spent playing videogames growing up had been spent playing sports instead. We didn't know the danger.
There is no reason why any computer can't be educational.
A real educational computer is a real computer, an actual PC.
anything less than that, like a mac, is not really educational.
if you insist if Raspberry Pi will teach you all about computers, its like saying Lego will teach you all about architecture and engineering.
If someone is using a shitty hand me down android tablet, they can still install c4droid on it.
For there, they can write games with SDL in C.
They can even create apk files.
the gui for it is real easy to learn as well.
and how in the fuck did you come to the conclusion I'm OP?
yeah I bet you'll have the time to watch over what your kids are doing
you realize they have smartphones and they finish school a few hours earlier than you come back from work?
>a real computer
no they're just pretend computers doing pretend calculations
It's the job of parents and techers to educate kids.
A computer is a mere tool, like a chalkboard or a map.
And take your stupid brats off Instagram and FB, for chrissakes!
aren't you people projecting a little?
just because you couldn't get your nose from behind the screen doesn't mean everyone has the same problem
In the UK there is something called the microbit which is taught in schools.
In the UK a toothpick is rated an assault weapon.
>what is FPGA education board
just write your oen hardware
Fuze is a pretty cool company for this sort of shit. It's modeled after older computers that you really had to fuck with, and comes with an integrated breadboard. If I had a kid I'd just get them one of those, slap on a headless OS. No phones or tablets until they can buy them with their own money and they're over the age of 14. If they want to browse the internet, they'll have to do it with Lynx.
Might seem harsh, but honestly, fuck modern computers. Fuck minimalist windows 10 bullshit. If I have a kid, I want them to learn right. Have them write down cool commands in a notebook, learn basic, learn how to telnet and ssh into bbs's, just like my pops taught me.
I don't care if it makes me a boomer, if you're going to live in this cyberpunk world of computers running everything we do, you need to understand how they work on a base level.
jesus christ these people are old enough to post on Jow Forums please kill me
>implying half of the userbase isn't literally underage
At least I'm explicitly allowed by the rules
Just a cheap X86 system.
A Celeron and motherboard bundle costs about £80, another £40 for 4GBs of DDR4. a £20 case and a £20 PSU.
Another £70 for a 1080p monitor, £20 for a keyboard and mouse bundle.
There: a PC that will run office software for another 6-8 years. Maybe a decade if you update the RAM to 8GB for £250.
You could fill a classroom for a few thousand £.
The RPI isn't open hardware
>anything less than that, like a mac, is not really educational.
Why? with the xcode command line tools you already have a simple dev environment.
This.
Virtual machine that simulates a simpler machines and has built in documentation complete with simulated hardware layouts that can be modified. Basically minecraft meets circuit simulation.
just get a raspberry pi and install puppi linux
It's 20 fucking 18, my dude
we're one year in the worst year to be on Jow Forums, literal 00 babies are allowed, now