This lets the kids have their own PC to work on without any risk of screwing up the family PC, and at a trivial cost.
Installing programming tools on whatever PC the parents may have is not a reliable, trivial, or consistent process. Parents will be upset if it somehow the installation screws up the home computer.
And yes, for some households with limited income, they may have enough money for an HDTV _or_ a PC, but not both - and most households will have opted for the HDTV before the need for an adequate PC for classwork became an issue.
> Parents will be upset if it somehow the installation screws up the home computer.
You've understated this point. Kids should be encouraged to (educationally) do things that will screw up their computers, like attempting to build their own kernel. They shouldn't have to worry about getting beaten because mom can't play Farmville after they've been experimenting.
>they may have enough money for an HDTV _or_ a PC, but not both //
I'd suspect for those for whom it is genuinely a choice they could opt for a second hand TV and second hand PC instead and afford both. Getting hold of a PC if you really want one seems to be quite easy, even in my poor city¹ (we have things like shampoo on our Freecycle, I kid you not, single bottle) there are quite a few opportunities to get a full computer for free ... but you'll have to accept an old model (oh noes!).
That said how does this all fit in to the stats I keep seeing that say computer use in school doesn't improve grades.
Would love me some RaspberryPi however.
--
1 - relative to the wealthy developed country I live in
The penetration rate between HDTVs and PCs are close. But just because there is a PC in the home, doesn't mean the kid can use it to learn (i.e. it may be a single PC for the whole family to use).
1) It's got RCA outputs also; explicitly so it'll work with /any/ TV, including the 10-year old junker you picked up at a yardsale for $25.
2) As also noted below, the goal of this project is to produce a computer for children to learn about the computer itself. The low cost (presuming the parents are even buying it directly) means kids will be able to have their way with it without worrying about wrecking the family computer.
