[ Thanks to An Anonymous
Reader for this link. ]
“During the talk Eben explains that the $25 price point was
decided upon because it is the cost of a textbook so it made sense.
Students buy textbooks, so a PC priced the same is a natural fit
and hopefully an easy purchase for them, their parents, or their
school.“As to why a $25 PC is needed, it simply comes down to the need
to develop programming skills while still young, a skill that seems
to have disappeared in recent years. Eben explains this as due to
the typical hacking and experiment platforms such as the Commodore
64 and Sinclair ZX81 all disappearing and being replaced with the
closed game consoles. Even the PC has become closed as families
typically share it and kids aren’t encouraged to experiment for
fear of breaking it.“Other interesting gems of information that come to light during
his talk include Raspberry Pi’s original wider scope of not only
providing a cheap PC, but the curriculum that surrounds it. That
has now been rethought with the learning part left to teachers and
the community while they focus on the hardware.”