At the end he write the setup cost him $20, but the display alone sells for $50 (from the amazon link he provided). I'm assuming he had a bunch of the components already, but that's not really a fair cost comparison.
I wonder why he didn't use a RP2350, it costs practically same as the older RP2040. That way it could have 450 kB or so system RAM, enough to play around with some old productivity software.
I dont want to belittle the authors work, but I would call this "building custom hardware for a pico-Mac project."
The old Macs really were the perfect form factor for a compact desktop computer—you saw them in every bedroom in every 1990s sitcom.
Are there any good options these days that are smaller than a 24" all-in-one?
Edit, this isn't the one I read but looks like the idea is older than I thought as someone was doing it in 2015:
https://www.randomorbit.co.uk/?p=904
https://arstechnica.com/apple/2025/06/new-filament-lets-you-...