Adafruit: Arduino’s Rules Are ‘Incompatible With Open Source’

Animats

"Anything that was open, stays open".

Now contemplate open Android and Google Play Services.

p0w3n3d

They did a great job. We must recognise experts in this matter. They had help of other companies and hardware producers of course, but still...

Or even that they forbid to use different clients for YouTube

drxzcl

As an aside, I have never seen a decent license for user generated content. Either they expose the platform to serious liability, or they come across as incredibly predatory.

chaosprint

I never use Arduino or Arduino IDE anyway; it's incredibly laggy for me, and I hate having these things in the cloud. I mainly use Pico and VS Code now.

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arjie

Seems fine. There's a Qualcomm SaaS platform you don't need that they have the boilerplate no-hacking clause on. And Arduinos are the same as always. Considering the EFF and Arduino positions in favour, both of whom have done a lot for open-source stuff, I really can't be bothered that Adafruit is trying to drum up some marketing content.

vasco

Agree completely and I was writing arduino libraries almost 20 years ago

arjie

My first Arduino was something like 15 years ago as well, a Duemilanove. I suspect my parents still have it. I'm not saying nothing can change over time, but there's always one controversy after another online these days in software communities and I think rather than trust the latest mob I'm going to trust the guy who's been serving me well for more than a decade. These openness purity tests are really not for me.

neilv

I'd like to see HN generally take a stance that a hacking-ish education platform like Arduino should be open source and hacking-friendly.

(Disclosure: I know the Adafruit founder, but haven't discussed this matter with her.)

stackghost

These days I don't think Arduinos are meaningfully more accessible than, say, an ESP8266 or ESP32. If I was starting a new hobby project today I'd choose the latter.

jxdnnd

Don't the latter require separate board support in the Arduino IDE? That was at least the case in the past

Liftyee

That's only if you're using the Arduino IDE though, and it's so commonplace that instructions are widespread. Many are using MicroPython/CircuitPython which are independent from Arduino.

MrJohz

It's a bit odd that most of this article is various claims from one of Arduino's competitors being taken at face value, especially when the EFF spokesperson generally seems to think the new terms broadly make sense, albeit with some criticisms.

It sounds like Adafruit are just trying to sow some outrage here.

malfist

Adafruit is not an arduino competitor. They sell arduinos

andrewflnr

I was very confused when the article referred to

> Chief microcontroller rival Adafruit

Implying that Adafruit makes their own competing microcontrollers, which sure would have been news to me.

Edit: sees sibling posted at the same time. Well that would explain it.

rpcope1

They also sell feather and a bunch of other vaguely similar stuff and have their own "maker" ecosystem (think CircuitPython). I like Adafruit, but they are in many senses competitors to Arduino.

sunnyps

They sell Arduino compatible boards (amongst other things) from what I gather, so yes, they would be competitors.

SV_BubbleTime

After Qualcomm bought them? Who could have seen this coming? Hang on while I get back to arguing with my MSP that I really would prefer ProxMox over HyperV to replace VMWare.

RobotToaster

> our commitment to the open source spirit is unwavering and Arduino’s core mission remains unchanged

Running a proprietary SaaS doesn't really show commitment to open source.

_ache_

I agree, but that is nothing new. The original SaaS was already proprietary.

And btw, the "reverse engineering" close was already here too. You can check the archive.org of Jan 2025, months before the Qualcomm acquisition.

https://web.archive.org/web/20250120145427/https://www.ardui...

So this citation, is basically fake news and FUD. The *now* part is false and this hide the fact that the "platform" is only the SaaS.

> Phillip Torrone had warned [...] Arduino’s users were now “explicitly forbidden from reverse engineering or even attempting to understand how the platform works unless Arduino gives permission.”

altaccount2026

I’m absolutely fed up with this company.

As unbelievable as this sounds, Adafruit’s leadership has a record of doxing and harassing trans people on social media.

The harassment led to Adafruit’s Phil Torrone (mentioned in the article) getting suspended from Bluesky.