I’M A WINDOWS USER GET ME OUT OF HERE!

IT’S HARD TO KNOW just how much we’re handled with kid gloves these days as computer users—and this journalist says that from a Linux user’s perspective. It’s likely that many Maximum PC readers will remember children’s electronic kits from the 1970s, like Radio Shack’s Science Fair Microcomputer Trainer. You had to handwire components to create a suitable circuit, then program the CPU by inputting single commands and variables in hexadecimal. Horrifying, but fun!

It’s the sort of barebones introduction to computing electronics that will suitably traumatize a young child into wanting to learn to program. It’s also about as far away from how current children are introduced to the subject via sanitized iPads and touchscreen devices. Where’s all the fun if there’s no screaming “What do you mean I have to wire up the resistors with my