One thing which the Eee definitely has is portability, and I've come to the conclusion that if you want to learn coding from scratch these days, you really need a decent portable laptop. If you can code in the park, coding becomes a lot more attractive and you might get your brother into the business a lot faster.
Another important detail is that if he ever takes a course in coding, he will be at a significant disadvantage in the class without a portable laptop. My brother-in-law told me that when he was getting his programming degree from Washburn, his classmates were simultaneously taking notes and finishing the day's homework because they could do both at the same time on their laptops. Because he didn't get a laptop until his second year, he was working a lot harder in his classes (programming and otherwise) than his classmates.
--- Sean Crago cragos@gmail.com wrote:
I have had one suggestion so far that the screen
size makes this _not_
a good machine (even) for casual coding.
The EEE looks mighty tempting, but I'm waiting for the PC900 iteration for precisely this reason. That said, it's still more screen than your brother will ever need if he's comfortable with a TTY-style environment. If not, you might be better off investing the same money in a clunky & hefty old refurb P4 with a real screen.
-Sean _______________________________________________ Kclug mailing list Kclug@kclug.org http://kclug.org/mailman/listinfo/kclug
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