a computer so cheap my brother need not worry about breaking it. If I had something like that I would have been much freer trying out linux.

computer in the hands of everyone will likely flood the market with mediocre programmers and make it more difficult for companies to discover the good ones. I have seen the destruction that weaker coders can bring to code bases, and while modern coding techniques largely mitigate the issues, I think that this move will have a positive impact on ‘better’ software houses and a detrimental impact on the rest of the industry.

The school buys a bunch of Raspberry Pis. Kids can bring their own SD card or buy 1 pre-configured and use the schools Raspberry Pi’s. Or pay a deposit (equaling the cost of a Raspberry Pi) and they can take it home and work on it in their own time. If they want to keep it they just let the school know and a replacement is bought with the deposit.