The cost of computers has come down a ton, but it was a much bigger deal in the 90's and earlier. A lot of people didn't have computers at home. A decent x86 system (like a 486 with VGA etc) was at least $2500 or so. That's without any programming tools... compilers weren't free. When I meet fellow developers who didn't have computers growing up, I realize how privileged and lucky I was.