On the positive, I will pull out something like an Arduino for fun. It is possible to explore the depths of the machine and do things that are rather unique. Cheap FPGAs, 3-D printing, and such are all the same.
On the other hand, you have things like the Raspberry Pi 400. It was fun to watch a tear down or two to see what is inside. The vintage form factor is cool too. Yet the moment it came to software, the interest dwindled since it is just another Linux box.
When it comes to software, I feel that the lack of scarcity also hurts. Take those programming languages. Once upon a time there was the anticipation of getting something new, and there was incentive to learn the details. Now it's all just there. It's often hard to find motivation to learn anything but the surface details unless it's a truly unique language.
This isn't meant to diminish what has been accomplished. In the hands of the right people, they are powerful tools. In the hands of someone who just wants to play, they are much less cool.
On the motivation front, that's a personal thing. When choices are limited and things are new, there's that exciting factor in learning. But it seems most of us have seen the same thing in different variation, and then drowning in choices which does reduce the motivation factor. But this is more subjective than objective. Nothing stopping you from creating your own OS for the pi. Linus did it in 1990 for x86 with very little resource, anyone motivated can do so today.
On the positive, I will pull out something like an Arduino for fun. It is possible to explore the depths of the machine and do things that are rather unique. Cheap FPGAs, 3-D printing, and such are all the same.
On the other hand, you have things like the Raspberry Pi 400. It was fun to watch a tear down or two to see what is inside. The vintage form factor is cool too. Yet the moment it came to software, the interest dwindled since it is just another Linux box.
When it comes to software, I feel that the lack of scarcity also hurts. Take those programming languages. Once upon a time there was the anticipation of getting something new, and there was incentive to learn the details. Now it's all just there. It's often hard to find motivation to learn anything but the surface details unless it's a truly unique language.
This isn't meant to diminish what has been accomplished. In the hands of the right people, they are powerful tools. In the hands of someone who just wants to play, they are much less cool.