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reading through the comments, i remember how my first 'server' was a hacked Xbox made to run linux as a kid, it was easier to buy a used Xbox with cash (as-is

reading through the comments, i remember how my first 'server' was a hacked Xbox made to run linux as a kid, it was easier to buy a used Xbox with cash (as-is and heavily worn) and pick up a couple Linux administration books from the bargain bin (with script examples that still worked!), than find a hosting provider that was willing to take me on as a customer without an ID or permanent residence is it possible to learn programming from scratch in 2024 without a credit card?

conductr 2y ago
> is it possible to learn programming from scratch in 2024 without a credit card? Back when I started, few years before Xbox, I paid a friends dad to build me a PC. It was a few hundred bucks back then and he took cash but it was a significant sum for me even as a working teen. But even that was cheaper than it had been in the early nineties and prior. If I was a cash strapped kid again in the current world I think it would be pretty easy to come up with enough to buy a raspberry pi and load Linux just as you did. If not, you could get a base level laptop for $300 or less at a retail store. You could probably use the TV you already have as a display and likely same for any SD cards for storage space. They probably already have a device they could run a virtual machine on and get started that way (No investment needed.) In any case, probably easier and cheaper than ever to do this as a kid. Question is, is this really the part a kid would find interesting these days? I like programming building things and even lead to me owning a web hosting company in 2000-2003ish. Since then, I still like to program and build things but do not give much care to management of servers, I’ll gladly pay someone else for that.
- jareklupinski 2y ago
  > is this really the part a kid would find interesting these days? i built the xbox server because i wanted to share my mp3 library with all my friends, and play it on school computers, like spotify's web player, but i didnt track who logged in and what was played how many times (used PHP to build listings, and Flash to actually play the files on the client) putting up a server using my available budget was an important step :) it was only up for a few weeks before it became infected and i had to take it down though... but while showing it to someone more savvy (and connected), they gave me an account on their shared server and i started more projects there
bitwize 2y ago
Go to a store that sells electronics hobby stuff and snag a Raspberry Pi with paper route money. Thrift stores are sometimes good places to score old computer shit. One time I scavenged a PC from behind a dumpster. Linux can be downloaded and put on a USB flash drive.
bradgranath 2y ago
Cash for a used laptop and a thumbdrive at your local pc recycler, go to the nearest library for free WiFi. Download and install the latest Debian from the thumbdrive. No card required. Library might want ID or a guardian's ID to get a card, which might be required for access. But definitely zero credit needed.
- bradgranath 2y ago
  But that's just programming. More than half of what new folks mean these days by "programming" includes hosting and distributing an app, and you're gonna have a lot more difficulty finding outbound bandwidth (let alone hosting) without credit and identity.
  - bradgranath 2y ago
    Buuuuuut, maybe with the right combination of GitHub Spaces and forgoing the Play Store for fDroid, you could pull it off.

conductr 2y ago

> is it possible to learn programming from scratch in 2024 without a credit card? Back when I started, few years before Xbox, I paid a friends dad to build me a PC. It was a few hundred bucks back then and he took cash but it was a significant sum for me even as a working teen. But even that was cheaper than it had been in the early nineties and prior. If I was a cash strapped kid again in the current world I think it would be pretty easy to come up with enough to buy a raspberry pi and load Linux just as you did. If not, you could get a base level laptop for $300 or less at a retail store. You could probably use the TV you already have as a display and likely same for any SD cards for storage space. They probably already have a device they could run a virtual machine on and get started that way (No investment needed.) In any case, probably easier and cheaper than ever to do this as a kid. Question is, is this really the part a kid would find interesting these days? I like programming building things and even lead to me owning a web hosting company in 2000-2003ish. Since then, I still like to program and build things but do not give much care to management of servers, I’ll gladly pay someone else for that.

jareklupinski 2y ago
> is this really the part a kid would find interesting these days? i built the xbox server because i wanted to share my mp3 library with all my friends, and play it on school computers, like spotify's web player, but i didnt track who logged in and what was played how many times (used PHP to build listings, and Flash to actually play the files on the client) putting up a server using my available budget was an important step :) it was only up for a few weeks before it became infected and i had to take it down though... but while showing it to someone more savvy (and connected), they gave me an account on their shared server and i started more projects there

bitwize 2y ago

Go to a store that sells electronics hobby stuff and snag a Raspberry Pi with paper route money. Thrift stores are sometimes good places to score old computer shit. One time I scavenged a PC from behind a dumpster. Linux can be downloaded and put on a USB flash drive.

bradgranath 2y ago

Cash for a used laptop and a thumbdrive at your local pc recycler, go to the nearest library for free WiFi. Download and install the latest Debian from the thumbdrive. No card required. Library might want ID or a guardian's ID to get a card, which might be required for access. But definitely zero credit needed.

bradgranath 2y ago
But that's just programming. More than half of what new folks mean these days by "programming" includes hosting and distributing an app, and you're gonna have a lot more difficulty finding outbound bandwidth (let alone hosting) without credit and identity.
- bradgranath 2y ago
  Buuuuuut, maybe with the right combination of GitHub Spaces and forgoing the Play Store for fDroid, you could pull it off.