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Comment by awhitty | Hacker News Reader

I agree with your assessment that this isn't really "building" a computer/etc., but I think your tone is unwarranted here.

This looks like a high-quality RPi starter kit, for which there is still a niche. Their "build" fluff is just for marketing to parents of aspiring hardware hackers, and if it means more kids get to start hacking around on a Raspberry Pi, I'm totally okay with it.

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I think it's a pretty nice RPi starter kit. Speaker, wifi, keyboard, great! I just don't like the bullshit marketing they've put on it. The kids will probably enjoy snapping together the parts, but then you're done. Now it's a sealed-up Minecraft box.

A bigger focus on, say, a suite of kid-oriented programming tools would have been better.

You're right - putting more emphasis on tools beyond Scratch and Codeacademy would be cool. And regarding the marketing I personally appreciate it. It's clearly prepared for nonhackerish people and does the job well - creates the feeling of accessibility and encouragement. That's something the tech world lacks generally (and often is proud of). Kano reminds me somehow what Apple did with iphone - bringing simple, easy solution that ordinary people love. And they were also criticized by pundits at the beginning.

Haters gonna hate, as they say.

Scorn-filled rants filled with pedantry rather than substantial criticisms tend to collect the majority of internet points on HN. It has been this way for years, and it seems likely to remain this way.

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