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Comment by marcosdumay | Hacker News Reader

> I truly wish someone was set to keep building something for the hobbyist

I really don't understand your concern.

Hobbists have a wider selection of computing tools than ever before (altough, that statement was true at any time since the 50's). We have the entire arduino ecosystem for hardware hobbists, throwaway PCs like the Raspberry Pi for embebbing real computers everywhere, several different standards of desktop-capable parts for more powerfull systems, and the server ecosystem for the real beefy ones.

Most of those computer types aren't even able to run Windows or OSX. iCloud and Secureboot won't make them go away.

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> Hobbists have a wider selection of computing tools than ever before

I don't think that's quite true. We had Heath kits and a lot more variety of computers from the late 70's to the early 90's. There is no under $200 computer sold at major retailers like there was in the 80's.

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%24200+1980+US+dollars+...

There are LOTS of under-$570 computers sold at major retailers today.

I don't consider inflation a valid excuse when we continually hear computers get cheaper every year and the Mac mini is selling at the Apple II's old price point. The PC industry abandoned the sub $200 because of Windows licensing, Intel, and Apple taking the old Apple II price as a floor.

$570 is a lot father out of reach today for many than $200 in the 80's.

Computers DO get cheaper every year. That Core 2 Duo machine you bought in 2006 might have cost $2000, but those components (if you can even find a place to buy them) would likely cost about $300 today.

It's unfair to say that they don't get cheaper considering that a Mac Mini is an entirely different class of machine from an Apple II, in so many ways that it's ridiculous to even try to list them here.

As for your statement about $570 vs $200... what do you base that on?

No, computers in the same price range are more powerful. The price range for computers under $200 has disappeared. The Mac mini and Apple II inhabit the same price range. You can get more power in the same price range next year but that same power never trickles down to the price ranges that disappeared in the 90's.

Hobbism is not trendy* nowadays. There is nothing aimed at hobbists for sale at any big retailer. It's not a problem with computers.

* Well, there is a perfectly rational reason for that, and it is not really a problem for hobbists. But that's the fact.

It's a big problem for the starting hobbyist. A kid will probably receive an iPad rather than something to start them on their way to being a programmer or EE.

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