Put them in front of windows 10 with Visual Studio 2015 Community Edition installed....
I get the lock it down to command line only so they can learn the way I did mentality. I'm going to do the same thing to my son, but I'd say that Windows 10 is an entertainment device is going a little far.
Windows has long been the enterprise software of choice for buisnises, MS Office? On top of that most of the software you list is all on the web (Netflix, Facebook), so the internet could be said to be all about entertainment. But again that's an oversimplification.
The main contention I can see with windows 8 are apps (which treat it like a phone) windows 10 kinda gets away from that by making all apps windowed (like windows). I find Windows 8 is easier to use with just a keyboard at times. The windows search functionality is great, and they've improved many of the commands.
If your kids can get at the internet they can get at entertainment. But if you cut off the internet then you cut off their ability to research the problem.
> On top of that most of the software you list is all on the web (Netflix, Facebook), so the internet could be said to be all about entertainment. But again that's an oversimplification.
I'm not taking issue with anything you've said, but to wander off topic slightly... The Windows 8.1 app for Netflix is one of the best ways of watching Netflix. It supports the higher bitrate non-4k Hd streams, 5.1 audio, profiles etc.
It works great on the low-end Windows 8.1 tablets (like the Linx 7), whereas the Silverlight and HTML5 browser-based options can struggle to do HD smoothly.
Also there is now Microsoft Office Online. While not as good as the native versions, they are usable.
I get the lock it down to command line only so they can learn the way I did mentality. I'm going to do the same thing to my son, but I'd say that Windows 10 is an entertainment device is going a little far.
Windows has long been the enterprise software of choice for buisnises, MS Office? On top of that most of the software you list is all on the web (Netflix, Facebook), so the internet could be said to be all about entertainment. But again that's an oversimplification.
The main contention I can see with windows 8 are apps (which treat it like a phone) windows 10 kinda gets away from that by making all apps windowed (like windows). I find Windows 8 is easier to use with just a keyboard at times. The windows search functionality is great, and they've improved many of the commands.
If your kids can get at the internet they can get at entertainment. But if you cut off the internet then you cut off their ability to research the problem.