I have an old computer having having intel pentium processor with 2.00 GHZ speed, 1GB RAM and only 150 GB hard drive. I have a passion to learn programming. Can I learn with this device?
This, my friend, is the Commodore 64.
It was launched in the year 1982 at a price point of $595 ($1,500 in today's money). Its 6510 processor ran at roughly 1 MHz, it had 64 kB of RAM, could be fitted with a casette tape player or (if you had the cash) a floppy disk-drive. It had no true operating system, but booted you directly into a BASIC interpreter. As for hard drives, Internet, sample-quality sound or graphics with more than 16 colors, those were pure fantasies at the time, about as attainable and practical as ordering a unicorn by mail. And you know what?
It probably created more programmers than any other computer.
Yes, it was limited. That's actually a point in its favor, because we learn and grow as programmers by facing and overcoming limitations placed in our way. And to varying degrees, as many as ten million C-64 users did precisely that, because they had ideas, because they were challenged by the scarcity of resources, and because the barrier to entry was so low.
So. The computer you have is thousands of times faster, with over ten thousand times the memory, and nigh-infinite permanent storage that does in nanoseconds what would take minutes to load or save onto precious tape on the '64. Its Internet connection lets you download, for free, all the development tools and examples and tutorials you could ever need. With the proper OS, you can have it multitasking like a dream, and you'll never have to deal with not having memory protection, virtual memory, or any of the thousand things that didn't exist during the eighties.
Right, the conclusion. Well, the question was, "can I learn with this device?" And that is of course entirely up to you. But the idea that the computer itself would limit you is just... no. Compared to what most programmers throughout history used to learn their craft, the one you have is amazingly, mind-blowingly, ridiculously overpowered.
Notes on the Quora Migration: this piece originally appeared on Quora. Since Quora is no longer what it was, I'm migrating my content here.
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