I think children having <i>their own</i> general purpose computing devices is pretty important. Time sharing and the obligation not to break &quot;the family computer&quot; make it pretty useless as a tinkering platform, unless your parents are technical and comfortable with it. The individual devices children own are compilation targets, maybe, but they can&#x27;t run text editors and compilers.<p>Cost <i>of the actual computer</i> is not the problem. All of these $50, $20, $5 computers conveniently ignore that fact that you also need $150+ for a monitor, USB hub, keyboard, mouse, WiFi adapter, etc. This quickly raises the price from &quot;something a low-income family can easily spend on a child&quot; to &quot;no fucking way.&quot; I found OLPC a lot more compelling.<p>Still, I&#x27;m thankful for cheap hardware on which to run pirate AirPlay targets and homebrew IP cameras :).