Re: Thermionic valves ...
tubes/valves still have a lot of use in electronics. In many ways there's no better way to get really high power in an RF circuit than with a water-cooled power tube (like commercial radio transmitters). I don't believe there are any megawatt UHF MOSFETS out there, though it's possible I haven't kept up...
What modern tech can do is make them smaller, and use exotic materials to make them last longer.
As for learning electronics with valves/tubes, sometimes it just looks cool to see glowy bottles that look like they're doing something.
(there's also a lot of audio purists and musicians who swear by their tube amplifiers)
Biting the hand that feeds IT
