If you’re between 28 and 50 you grew up at a time where computers didn’t work well, so you had to figure out how they worked in order to use them. Now that mobile devices have been walled gardens that Just Work for a decade, you’ve got people who have had no reason to learn how the computer works.

I have my original Leading Edge Model D: keyboard, CRT, & packing cases (in storage). Video cards, DIP switches, & whopping 64 k memory chips in tubes! Whopping 10 Mb hard drive (issued later): breadbox size. And in 86: Model L Modem: 1200 Baud! Word processing *and* online Oxford library catalogue!

A lot of software engineering students have a U-shaped set of computer skills where they know how to open a web browser, and C++ data structures & algorithms, but very little in between.

yup. youngs and olds are similarly bad when it comes to using actual computers, both marvel at me like a wizard when i use the most basic keyboard shortcut

it was glorious when my mac just crashed a few times a day, for secret reasons

So would it be considered community service then to lock a Zoomer in a room with nothing but food, drink, a desktop computer sans OS, a print Linux manual, an USB flash drive with Linux Mint Debian Edition on it, and a printout with the Wi-Fi password? Just asking. You know, hypothetically.

Literally every IT guy in America got his start in the field as a kid trying to get the sound to work correctly on some DOS game in 1993

I REALLY miss this part of computing. And I haven't felt like I've truly "owned" a computer in a while, certainly not like I owned Amiga and later BeOS. (Linux still gives me a bit of that, but it feels like eg. Ubuntu is slowly moving in the same corporate direction.)

we should make them attempt to get a PC game c. 1998 working

I was watching a Strange Aeons video about some early 2000s fandom drama and the comments were full of zoomers who were astonished that people back then knew how to check IP addresses.

I dunno 28 seems kinda stretching it. Maybe some 28 year olds but OSX launched in 2001.