However why do we need a Raspberry Pi? Can't you make software with any computer (except recent things from Apple)? Or is it a case that RP, being so popular will get people talking about creating and playing with stuff?
Now, with a rp, when a kid says "I'm gonna strap my computer to this servo, and that servo to some junk in the garage and throw it all off of the roof AND IT WILL FLY!" a few less parent will freak out and there is more of a chance we can all benefit from what ever is in this kids head..... and latterly smashed on his lawn :)
There are a lot of ideas in kids heads that just don't see the light of day.
Even the richest parents would think twice about allowing little alice to throw her laptop off the roof.
As a kid that grew up without a lot of stuff and my parents struggled to get me my first computer (Oric 16k). It changed my life. I think the RP will change more lives and open up more avenues to genuinely poor kids who want to experiment.
Great ideas are not just generated by middle/upper class kids, us working class kids have great ideas too.
I realise this is a great generalisation and we live in a 'class-less society' and money goes up as well as down and some kids will indeed use RP to record their sisters undressing and some kids will try and snort their RP up their nose BUT it's a genuine opportunity for ALL kids and I endorse it.
They're also going to be gently hampered by having various incompatibilities - the programming environment will cause some stuff to not compile and while that's a great learning experience it's not what you want someone to be faced with on their first "Hello World" example. Note that all those home computers that people started on, typing listings from magazines, did not have those problems.
And advanced learners are going to be gently impeded by the OS not letting them get access to the hardware. I made a simple DA converter out of resistors soldered to a D25, which I used with NO$GB emulator. Building that DA was useful for me, and seeing the data lines on the D25 made the concept a lot more real. I guess this is possible under Linux or OSX or Windows but it's harder than just selecting addresses and sending data to them.
[1] My answer to those questions is to just use "Learn Python the Hard Way"; perhaps having a version tailored for young people and the Raspberry PI. Once they've worked their way through that they have the confidence to start choosing editors etc.
And yes, surely some have >1 already. So what? How does the fact that some kid has 3 computers do anything for a kid who has none?
In fact I'd say that Apple's stack is outstanding for this purpose because it goes all the way from the very top (high level support for multi-touch) all the way to the very bottom (arm assembly), with an IDE and remote debugging at every level.
I think there is also a psychological advantage to the Apple stack for passionate young programmers - they aren't programming a toy.
For this purpose though, it is vastly more expensive than the alternatives.
If all you own is an iPad, Apple don't let you run software tools on it.
If you mean that you can't develop native apps using only an iPad, that is true. For that you need to buy other tools (e.g. a Mac mini), which is why I said it was an expensive option.
Though, I think about the insane hours I spend tinkering with my computer when I was a kid and it makes me wonder how many parents would be happy to let their children go on tinkering for hours like that on the commong family screen!