- cross-posted to:
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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
Qualcomm-owned Arduino quietly pushed a sweeping rewrite of its Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, and the changes mark a clear break from the open-hardware ethos that built the platform. The new documents introduce an irrevocable, perpetual license over anything users upload, broad surveillance-style monitoring of AI features, a clause preventing users from identifying potential patent infringement, years-long retention of usernames even after account deletion, and the integration of all user data (including minors) into Qualcomm’s global data ecosystem. Military weird things and more.
This was linked in the comments and pretty good read if anyone wants to avoid linkedin
https://www.molecularist.com/2025/11/did-qualcomm-kill-arduino-for-good.html
Remember y’all - you can set up your own custom Arduino compile-build-flasu chain with the bootloader and everything on Linux without having to use their IDE or ever leaving the terminal
Imma just point people at PlatformIO again. So much better. Arguably easier, too.
Way easier if you start designing circuits directly with microcontrollers and still want to use Arduino libraries on the software side: things like uploading to the microcontroller and fuse programming are just entries in a platformIO project configuration file and it’s way more easy to find were and how to change board libraries to for your own custom “board”.
Also you can run PlatformIO as an extension in Visual Studio Code, which a much better IDE for programming than the Arduino IDE.
I… Gotta disagree with you in the “easier” dept, quite vigorously.
And thus, the jailbreaks and Git hosters rise.
If they close the IDE, someone will fork the last open version.
If they close the company, Chinese clone makers will pretty certainly ignore them and keep on making clones.
The problem: clone makers rarely take a platform forward, so eventually stagnation will set on.
So, Arduino can’t be sold in EU anymore?
libavr it is, then.
Called it.



