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Comment by euroclydon | Hacker News Reader

If I put my kid in front of a modern Windows PC, leave them alone for a few hours, and hope they learn something, I'm not very optimistic.

Let's say I install Small Basic on Windows 8.1 or 10. So now I've put my kid in front of an operating system that has such a high-level UI that it doesn't even have a proper list of programs. The media consuming portion of the OS is so heavily emphasized over the creative portion of it. You can see this because the OS is designed to be used without a keyboard!!

PCs are entertainment devices. Designed for watching Netflix, visiting Facebook and listening to music. This is like putting a small piece of Broccoli in the middle of a bowl of ice cream.

No thanks!!

I'll find a minimal windows manager for linux. Something that can be invoked just to get the window for the game they're writing up and running.

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I don't get your argument. I wrote my first programs using the very limited BASIC that came with my Commodore 64. Now that was primarily an entertainment device, and I still managed to learn interesting things with it!

the internet is an infinite amusement park, desperately plying you for pageviews

Put them in front of windows 10 with Visual Studio 2015 Community Edition installed....

I get the lock it down to command line only so they can learn the way I did mentality. I'm going to do the same thing to my son, but I'd say that Windows 10 is an entertainment device is going a little far.

Windows has long been the enterprise software of choice for buisnises, MS Office? On top of that most of the software you list is all on the web (Netflix, Facebook), so the internet could be said to be all about entertainment. But again that's an oversimplification.

The main contention I can see with windows 8 are apps (which treat it like a phone) windows 10 kinda gets away from that by making all apps windowed (like windows). I find Windows 8 is easier to use with just a keyboard at times. The windows search functionality is great, and they've improved many of the commands.

If your kids can get at the internet they can get at entertainment. But if you cut off the internet then you cut off their ability to research the problem.

> On top of that most of the software you list is all on the web (Netflix, Facebook), so the internet could be said to be all about entertainment. But again that's an oversimplification.

I'm not taking issue with anything you've said, but to wander off topic slightly... The Windows 8.1 app for Netflix is one of the best ways of watching Netflix. It supports the higher bitrate non-4k Hd streams, 5.1 audio, profiles etc.

It works great on the low-end Windows 8.1 tablets (like the Linx 7), whereas the Silverlight and HTML5 browser-based options can struggle to do HD smoothly.

Also there is now Microsoft Office Online. While not as good as the native versions, they are usable.

That's utter hyperbole. Windows still has a desktop mode that looks very much like Windows XP did, let alone 95 or 3.1, even.

3.1's a bit of a stretch, seeing as it didn't even have a Start Menu.

It's not the computer that's the issue. It's the internet. Disconnect the internet, and your kid will have to find ways to be creative with the computer itself.

From the FAQ "To install Small Basic, you have to be running Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7."

So it's not a problem then :P

This and the Silverlight thing made me wonder if this was a zombie project running on autopilot. The blog is still being updated regularly, though, so I guess not. :-)

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