I would recommend the Raspberry Pi. If he turns out not to be that interested, you won't have invested much - the computer itself only costs $35 plus shipping a

I would recommend the Raspberry Pi. If he turns out not to be that interested, you won't have invested much - the computer itself only costs $35 plus shipping and taxes. Apart from the computer there is a truly awesome community, with a lot of emphasis on getting kids interested in coding, all sorts of different projects and really helpful forums if you get stuck. Scratch is very well supported. There is even a getting started with computing kit: https://www.element14.com/community/docs/DOC-77882?ICID=rpimain-feature-products https://www.element14.com/community/docs/DOC-77882?ICID=rpim... That costs €139, but Matlab is freely available for the Raspberry Pi (special license), and the documentation is also freely available. What you are paying for is the bundling together with all of the accessories, which you may not need.