I personally feel a beginner is better advised to purchase a more open platform like Papilio One.

The fpga4fun boards are closed, and some of the boards only have a block diagram; some of their examples are not supplied with the VHDL or verilog source either. An example: they sell boards that can be assembled together to form a crude oscilloscope. However, there is no source to modify it, and there is only a block diagram of the ADC, leaving it impossible to improve on aspects such as triggering.

Not only that, but you cannot even download the binary unless you purchase the boards. So, you’ve little hope to see if there is any source code or not, unless you purchase the board. (For the record – if you do buy the board, you still don’t get the source code or the schematics).

Given that some of the best ways of learning is to build on existing examples and improve designs, I fail to see the fun in fpga4fun.