Its the enormity of the abstractions that have to be embraced, in my opinion, which lead to distraction. There is much between a file and its handle. And thus

Its the enormity of the abstractions that have to be embraced, in my opinion, which lead to distraction. There is much between a file and its handle. And thus: Far, far more words - real, English and/or Development-oriented words, symbols - exist in all the infinite abstractions of a typical Desktop machine; whereas the 8-bit worlds' abstract taxonomy is very sparse. There isn't really any good reason to throw away the 8-bit machines. They still work. And they still teach kids how computers work, even still today. I hope we see a return to this technology in a fashion that really compels people - young and old - to apply the ethos of those days, again. Distraction-free computing is one legacy of the earlier era.