An Affordable $35 Computer For Low-Income Families
The high cost of computers prevents an estimated 41% of low-income American households from completing many essential tasks online, including doing schoolwork, and applying for college, government aid, and health insurance. These tasks require extensive typing and would be difficult to do on a smartphone. Without ready access to a computer, many Americans are placed at a disadvantage. However, after some research and tinkering, I have found a way to put together a computer for just $35 (the approximate cost of five Starbucks coffees) that will enable people to access the Internet, engage in online learning, write stories, and much more. This article will walk you through how I put this computer together in less than two hours. I hope my experience will show it’s possible for a computer to be both useful and affordable.
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You are unlikely to find the Raspberry Pi computer in most big-box electronics stores because it is not advertised heavily like the more popular Mac and Windows computers. The Raspberry Pi computer board is created and sold by the Raspberry Pi Foundation, a British charity. The Foundation was started by a team of computer scientists at Cambridge University who aimed to create cheap computers for the public to encourage the growth of Computer Science programs at institutions everywhere. Developed in 2012, the original Raspberry Pi (Model B) was suited for coding from scratch and basic entertainment like watching videos. Its newest generation (Raspberry Pi 4) has turned into a device well-equipped for python programming, entertainment, and science-enriched learning. In fact, approximately 37.4 million hobbyists use the raspberry pi to create projects like servers based on Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP (LAMP), and virtual assistants (Google Home and Alexa). In comparison to the average Chromebook, buying the Raspberry Pi would save you over $250 alone on hardware.