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That's why I love the software industry. We have such a low financial barrier to if you want to play around with even the deepest systems programming techniques, or the highest-level functional programming languages. All you need is a $400 PC.

And time. Sometimes that's what the FU money would bring to the table.

These days, a $50 PC (or a free PC) will probably serve you better, because it's more likely to have a serial port.

You should probably try to find one that can either PXE boot or boot from a USB stick, since those are pretty much the easiest ways to quickly test your software.

Actually, I got away with a <$200 PC.

I am not in school. I have mouths to feed.

On the other hand, weekends aren't work days anymore (not for me, at least).

When you are an undergrad or recent graduate, you can do this.

When you are older, have a job, you need FU money generally. Or no life.