The sentiment in this article is right on. Of course, we've probably all read this a long time ago.
I loved computers when I had GW-BASIC on a 286. When I was in middle school and I got a computer with Windows 95 I quickly lost the wonder that kept me up all night writing BASIC on sheets of looseleaf.
I read somewhere that Google App Engine is like today's BASIC. This is a fair comparison. GAE makes it easy to start working in a nice programming environment. I stick to Linux because I've never been comfortable programming in Windows, but GAE lets coders get started easily and for free, without having to learn about Linux or Windows.
I loved computers when I had GW-BASIC on a 286. When I was in middle school and I got a computer with Windows 95 I quickly lost the wonder that kept me up all night writing BASIC on sheets of looseleaf.
I read somewhere that Google App Engine is like today's BASIC. This is a fair comparison. GAE makes it easy to start working in a nice programming environment. I stick to Linux because I've never been comfortable programming in Windows, but GAE lets coders get started easily and for free, without having to learn about Linux or Windows.