were they ? I certainly enjoyed my Apple ][+ and 8086 back in the days but for different reasons. Back in the days, we had freedom to tinker : you could rip the

were they ? I certainly enjoyed my Apple ][+ and 8086 back in the days but for different reasons. Back in the days, we had freedom to tinker : you could rip the computer apart (you had to sometimes). You had to use a fully understandable computer. But you also had to spend days to get things done : small memory, floppies, had to work in assembly to get meaningful results, 0-standardisation, documentation hard to get by, etc. But I was a kid and this was fun nonetheless, because it was coding for the sake of beating other coders, no need to earn one's life with it. Now I can start working on my neural network in a matter of 30 minutes, I can easily import graphics, sound, cut/paste them, etc. I can track my versions with git, got access to billions of web pages, etc. Now, however I have to earn a living with these tools... Less freedom, more work... So what's better ?