What is a computer for?

Apple recently released the MacBook Neo, the cheapest MacBook ever made, but a lot better than the majority of computers in the same price bracket. People are calling it the Chromebook killer, and the conquerer of the education market.

It is definitely a disruptive machine, but one thing the reviewers are focusing too much on is who this laptop is or isn’t for. Saying things like: “if you want to edit videos, photos, code on big projects, this laptop isn’t for you”. And while I don’t disagree with them, I much more agree with this article: “This Is Not The Computer For You” · Sam Henri Gold, saying that as a kid using a computer, you know it’s probably not the right tool for what you are trying to do and it doesn’t matter, it never did.

Nobody starts in the right place. You don’t begin with the correct tool and work sensibly within its constraints until you organically graduate to a more capable one. That is not how obsession works. Obsession works by taking whatever is available and pressing on it until it either breaks or reveals something. The machine’s limits become a map of the territory. You learn what computing actually costs by paying too much of it on hardware that can barely afford it.

When I was a kid, my first interaction with a computer was at my father’s workplace. He’d sit me down at the work computer, open solitaire and let me play it for hours. He’d also ask me to help him scan files from time to time, showing me that a computer is not just for games. Then when I got a bit older dad bought my my own computer at home, but it didn’t have a connection to the internet yet. I could only use the apps that were installed into it and the games that I bought with my allowance, or that friends gave me copies of. I was never the creative type, I never wanted to draw things, make music or videos, all I wanted to do is play games. And I played a lot of them: Age of Empires II, Warcraft III, Harry Potter, The Neverhood, GTA Vice City & SA, THAW, Sonic Riders, Truck Simulator 2, etc

But through gaming I realised that computer specs matter: CPUs, GPUs, RAM can all impact how well your game runs and if it runs at all for that matter. Then, when I got an internet connection I started learning that you could modify games! Add your own cars, weapons, etc. So the next thing I learned was how change values in database tables of GTA San Andreas to make cars go faster and drift better. Add newer Ferraris into the game and make them fly.

In 2004 blizzard releases World of Warcraft and I absolutely had to play it. But it was a subscription, and there was no way I could afford that. Of course my parents weren’t paying 10$ per month for me play a game. So I did what most kids of my age would: find a free version somehow - private servers! But I went one step further. I set up my own private server. I learned how to host a server, how to manage the connection, and a lot more about the database. With each game I couldn’t play I was secretly learning more about hardware limitations, software limitations and actual software engineering with databases and networking. And by showing my parents that I cared a lot about how things worked, they let me upgrade and push the limits further. The photo at the top of this post is me getting a brand new computer as a Christmas / New Years gift in 2007, playing WoW now on the official servers and leveling my dwarf paladin to level 70 in Nagrand.

My parents never got me the perfect computer for software engineering, or for gaming. I got the computer that they thought would be enough for a kid my age. And I think that is the key message of the Apple MacBook Neo should be: this is a computer for everyone to learn what kind of computer they need.