The halcyon days of the late 1970s birthed companies like Apple and Microsoft out of the homebrew computer movement, wherein people in garages used cheap commodity parts to build computers–and then wrote the software to run them.

These days, electronics are becoming increasingly like modern automobiles–fully sealed and most definitely not user serviceable. But when accessibility dies, so does the ability to tinker.





Kano is a computer which anyone can build. Based on the Raspberry Pi, a $25, credit-card sized computer for kids running GNU/Linux, Kano’s DIY kit adds all the peripherals and software you need to make a fully functioning machine and then learn how to program on it. Kano launched on Kickstarter today at a price of $99.

“People of all ages had this latent hunger to look inside a computer,” says Alex Klein, cofounder of Kano. “I think that’s one of the reasons that so many people bought a Raspberry Pi. The problem is that the people who could actually do something with it weren’t actually the target of the (Raspberry Pi) foundation. They were hackers and engineers, people who are already comfortable with this stuff. We wanted to make it accessible to everyone.”

Klein is a former journalist who started learning Linux a couple of years ago. “I thought of myself more as a creative and programming was for engineers,” he says. “Whatever you think about software and the world of tech, whether you think it’s intimidating or geeky or unfathomable, we want to convince you that it’s just a different medium like clay or paint.”

Once booted, Kano runs a customized version of Debian Linux called Kano OS, which was inspired by game console dashboards and aims to make Linux less intimidating to beginners as well as improving the Pi’s performance. The Raspberry Pi has been criticized for being difficult to set up. Configuring Wi-Fi, for example, is much simpler in Kano OS than on the Pi and boot time has been reduced to 10 seconds.





Also included is a visual programming environment called Kano Blocks, which introduces the user to programming by modifying games. In fact, the whole setup and usage of the machine is framed as a series of game levels through which the user can progress. Kano’s team spent a year testing the product with kids, although the computer can be used by any age group. “We designed this with children because most of us only have the experience with this stuff that a young child has,” says Klein. “Lego has always been the guiding spirit for us, for the software as well. The idea was to create something which has that kind of step-by-step, call-and-response fun of Lego. You do it yourself, you put little pieces together, and you combine them in complex ways.” This is part of the reason that Kano Blocks focuses on games like Minecraft and music.