183 karma · joined March 8, 2015
I learnt a lot about computing hardware and software on that Pentium box: 166 MMX (overclocked to 200MHz), 16MB RAM (later 64MB), running Debian and my resurrected 15” LG CRT. Oh, and a 56kbps modem.
There has been discussion about flooding it with sea water for years but it seems impractical.
So 'maintain' is close. But I would argue that learning to maintain is not the goal or the measure. More important than using computers is understanding computers. Not a bunch of scripts or facts but concepts and a problem solving approach. This helps a little with maintenance but digital literacy is more about being informed of what is a pervasive aspect of our society (security, privacy, trust issues etc). This is also why a car analogy is not apt: technology is more pervasive. We don't use cars to make things in the way we use computers.