Qualcomm has started enshitification of Arduino
New Terms of Service introduce perpetual content licenses, reverse-engineering bans, and widespread data collection.
Here's the solution. Stop using Arduino. That's how people power work. Then a new open alternative will pop up, and people can start using that. Ones desire to create and build, should never belong to only one brand - but a universal brand - whenever possible.
Here's a problem. Schools are full of them. They are really, really good for that specific field. People only think about their private use, but education will suffer the most. Or taxpayers, because they have to pay the bill. Again.
It's a problem, but a minor one. And it still talks into the fact, that it is possible to make an Open Source projekt like that, maybe even owned by the government in some way, so it can't be turned to shit by corporate interests...
Hopefully places like Adafruit will stop stocking them. They should also post explanations for people searching directly for them.
Qualcomm has quietly made some massive changes to Arduino's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, marking a clear departure from the platform's founding principles.
According to Adafruit, the new policies introduce sweeping user-license provisions, broaden data collection (particularly around AI usage), and embed long-term account data retention, all while integrating user information into Qualcomm’s broader data ecosystem.
Section 7.1 grants Arduino a perpetual, irrevocable license over anything you upload. Your code, projects, forum posts, and comments all fall under this. This remains in effect even after you delete your account. Arduino retains rights to your content indefinitely.
The license is also royalty-free and sublicensable. Arduino can use your content however they want, distribute it, modify it, and even sublicense it to others.
The terms further state that users are not allowed to reverse engineer or attempt to understand how the platform works unless Arduino gives permission. Adafruit argues that this contradicts the values that made Arduino attractive to educators, researchers, and hobbyists.
The Privacy Policy states Arduino is wholly owned by Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. User data, including from minors, flows to other Qualcomm Group companies.
What the fuck?! TO ALL USERS, ABANDON SHIP! I REPEAT...
So Adafruit will stop carrying them?
“Pay us money so we can rip off all your work!”
Stupid question.
Does this apply to what you write and upload on the Arduino IDE to your boards? Or just whatever you publish on their website/ cloud?
The latter.
For now.
It's time for micropython.
Micropython is a software project, not hardware
The MicroPython pyboard is a compact electronic circuit board that runs MicroPython on the bare metal, giving you a low-level Python operating system that can be used to control all kinds of electronic projects.
Literally the second paragraph
Yep, I see that now. When I bought my first pyboard theirs was the only one. It's great to see how it spread!
Imo, arduino is also mostly a software project nowadays. While they did make a bunch of avr boards that were quite novel and interesting at the time, now they are not as good in terms of both price and performance compared to various arm-based boards.
What keeped arduino alive is a bunch of libs and arduino ide cores for various boards ppl have written over time.
Unfortunately all the controller boards appear to be out of stock everywhere.
You can run it on pretty much every esp.
I’ve had issues with getting it working on lilygo devices, but had no problem with basic cheap “devkits” from AliExpress.
"Hello, this brand of tools that was specifically made for people to learn about? Yes, you're no longer allowed to attempt to understand how they work."
First it was Raspberry Pi now Arduino. Is ESP32 all that’s left?
Isn’t Arduino more of a software framework and less about the chips themselves? Arduino can run on ESP32 and also on a huge array of ATmega mcus.
I don’t actually know that! I have fiddled with esp32 a bit and was disappointed when Pi’s priced out most of the hobbyist market
Is ESP32 open hardware?
nope.
Beagle boards are looking better - What other alternatives are recommended?
Edit: sorry, I was thinking of SBC's.
Blue pills & ESP are good hardware, the libraries & toolchain Im not so sure about.
Whooooa, I had no idea Arduino sold out. I thought this was about RaspberryPi for some reason at first, but this is even worse.
The enshitifcaiton was guaranteed the second the ink touched that paper.
Boycott time. Fuck these pricks and their money.
I'm glad I still have shitloads of ESP8266s kicking around.
Which ESP32 boards do folks recommend lately? Too many options.
ESP32C3 are pretty cool. Choose a random one from Aliexpress where the board pictures are unique and high quality and the description doesn't have spelling errors or the AI flair.
Thank you kind sir. AliExpress has been lacking my funding too long.
Digikey sells the Espressif dev boards, not very expensive either.
Please tell me ESP32 with python is still a good option or did they get bought out too?
Are RISCV microcontrollers out yet? Might be a good idea to rally around making a fully open IDE ecosystem and breakout board standard for it (maybe even make it pin compatible with the old school Arduino, surely they can't sue for that right?)
Thankfully, this doesn't seem to apply to code written outside of the Arduino ecosystem, so i ASSUME that if you're writing code for a cloned board using PlatformIO that these new terms don't apply to you
If that's not the case, I'll switch to micropython (probably easier anyway)
Sad :/
