I bought one of their C64 repros, it was exactly what I want, I was searching ebay for original Apple ][e at the time anyway.
Why? It's going to be my kids first computer.
Computers today are so absolutely hostile as they are simply attention-sucking sale-terminals. They spend all their time popping up unwanted notifications which are just advertising.
And the interface of modern devices is actually horrible for learning. Some stuff may be intuitive, but the biggest issue is that every slight movement, accidental tap or gesture is linked to something so for kids it's too easy to do something that exits the current program or bring up some sidebar. It's impossible even for me to connect "what did I just do?" with the sudden change in context. It makes it really hard to connect cause and effect. And don't even get me started on how dangerous apps like YouTube are for kids. The recommendation algo seems to surface click-farm scam content in no time. Or weird dopamine traps.
So my kids will start with a device that isn't constantly trying to sell things, they will learn to understand simple systems which has deterministic behavior.
Good luck, I mean that. Times have changed, my kids simply aren't interested in the things I was growing up, so as parents we decided not to force them but rather to positively reinforce whatever it is they want to do. That's not to say they can do whatever they want, of course, but they lead the direction.
I bought one of their C64 repros, it was exactly what I want, I was searching ebay for original Apple ][e at the time anyway.
Why? It's going to be my kids first computer.
Computers today are so absolutely hostile as they are simply attention-sucking sale-terminals. They spend all their time popping up unwanted notifications which are just advertising.
And the interface of modern devices is actually horrible for learning. Some stuff may be intuitive, but the biggest issue is that every slight movement, accidental tap or gesture is linked to something so for kids it's too easy to do something that exits the current program or bring up some sidebar. It's impossible even for me to connect "what did I just do?" with the sudden change in context. It makes it really hard to connect cause and effect. And don't even get me started on how dangerous apps like YouTube are for kids. The recommendation algo seems to surface click-farm scam content in no time. Or weird dopamine traps.
So my kids will start with a device that isn't constantly trying to sell things, they will learn to understand simple systems which has deterministic behavior.
Good luck, I mean that. Times have changed, my kids simply aren't interested in the things I was growing up, so as parents we decided not to force them but rather to positively reinforce whatever it is they want to do. That's not to say they can do whatever they want, of course, but they lead the direction.