The Death of Arduino?
64 comments
·November 19, 2025ahepp
> users are now explicitly forbidden from reverse-engineering or even attempting to understand how the platform works unless Arduino gives permission.
I briefly looked at their IDE and CLI repos and GitHub claims they're AGPL and GPL 3 respectively. I didn't see a CLA when I looked at their contribution guide.
Am I missing something here? What basis do they have to restrict users' rights to reverse engineer the software?
adfm
Arduino is as influential as it is controversial and has been from the beginning.
https://arduinohistory.github.io
https://hackaday.com/2016/03/04/wiring-was-arduino-before-ar...
reactordev
This is Legal Team not doing their due diligence. Just throwing a blanket terms of service update across all “properties”.
tuetuopay
Welp Qualcomm gonna Qualcomm. It was expected, but I did not expect it to be that blunt.
It takes a serious pair to "forbid reverse-engineering" on a platform aimed at tinkerers.
cattown
Doesn’t this only really affect actual Arduino brand products. There’s tons of just-as-good cheap knockoffs available. See Elegoo kits easily found on Amazon for example. The IDE is open source with the AGPL license.
Can’t we just cut Qualcomm out of the supply chain and keep going as normal without too much disruption? Doesn’t even feel like a hard fork is needed. Just don’t buy Qualcomm’s crap.
F7F7F7
Sounds great in theory. But this would put a serious dent in the Arduino opensource community and fragment support.
Arduino is the unifying umbrella that keeps everything together. With that gone the platform will surely lose.
andoando
Esp32 is just as big if not bigger.
wmf
The goal is probably to prevent any knockoffs of the next generation products.
chermi
Damn. I mean it's was expected I guess. Anyway, back to my Chinese esp32 since they've been better for a while anyway.
ge96
Teensy, maybe I finally use that stm bluepill I bought, I also have an unopened beagle bone black damn and orange crab
fidotron
This is not good. Qualcomm are [expletives] anyway, but we need more activity in the connected microcontroller space in the west.
Never have been a fan of the programming style encouraged by the Arduino SDK/API, so hopefully this demise will allow someone to enter the space with something that is actually competitive with the Espressif devices. Have a decent API and connectivity, at the same time, unfathomable stuff. The Picos are closest, but the connectivity situation is a mess.
aDyslecticCrow
Espressif was just handed the whole market on a platter. Unless raspberry can significantly expand their market but I doubt it. Year of the RISK V?
fidotron
It's one of those things you need a benevolent billionaire to bootstrap which will probably never make money.
The CPU cores aren't the problem (just use Hazard3) - it's all the rest, particularly the WiFi.
Iulioh
What about ESP32?
1970-01-01
>Qualcomm-owned Arduino
That's all you need to know. The old company no longer exists.
robert_foss
Qcom is a lawnmower, if you stick your hand in, it'll chop it off.
seemaze
"You don't think 'oh, the lawnmower hates me' - lawnmower doesn't give a shit about you, lawnmower can't hate you. Don't anthropomorphize the lawnmower." - Bryan Cantrill
JohnFen
The new terms are entirely unacceptable for any use.
It was nice while it lasted. RIP, Arduino.
analog31
How's this affect the Arduino IDE and libraries? At this point those seem more important than Arduino-branded hardware.
jdc0589
arduino ide is pretty terrible anyway. Swap to your normal ide of choice, and start using PlatformIO. way better experience, and you can actually have all your important config in normal text files on git/etc.. instead of having to tweak UI settings in Arduino studio.
dekhn
The only thing of value left in Arduino is the API (which has been ported to non-Arduinos) and the drivers (of which there are hundreds; Adafruit is one of the main developers).
JohnFen
You don't actually need the Arduino IDE. I haven't used it in years. You can use any IDE (or just makefiles) and gcc.
PaulHoule
It's like Verizon buying Tumblr and suddenly realizing they bought a porno site.
physarum_salad
Teensy is the best imo...would love to see that expand into more boards/specific use cases.
kvam
What are the alternatives for aspiring tinkerers now?
My wife (cybernetics engineer) and I are buying a 3D printer and planned getting an Arduino as an entry point. What should we do instead? What are the best communities and resources?
radeeyate
I first got into Raspberry Pi Picos, but I've also been experimenting with Esp32's and some of the nRF chips. I mostly do CircuitPython on them but Arduino is a supported platform on those I believe.
https://archive.ph/05KK2