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Nice try, Qualcomm.

by itomato 10mo ago

Nice try, Qualcomm.

ethagnawl 10mo ago
Some context for people who haven't been following recent the recent Qualcomm/Arduino developments: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/11/arduinos-new-terms-of-service-worries-hobbyists-ahead-of-qualcomm-acquisition/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/11/arduinos-new-terms-o...
- dahart 10mo ago
  I saw this the other day. I’m not sure exactly what the concerns are, nor why Qualcomm deserves any shade. I don’t know much about Qualcomm, but at least on the face of it, they’re keeping Arduino alive and infusing a lot of cash and expanding the platform, and they’re also keeping the board designs fully open source. It seems reasonable (and probably necessary in today’s world) to have terms on the cloud services. Arduino’s website itself was never open source, the chips they’ve always used aren’t open source. And it was Arduino’s decision to sell to Qualcomm, right? Why should the cloud services be open source?
  - itomato 10mo ago
    Arduino has four layers, only two were ever truly open: 1 Hardware reference designs (sort of open by intent) 2 Core software (open-source licensing) 3 Services and “happy path” tooling (not open) 4 Brand and governance (never open) Qualcomm’s move is about owning layer 4 and using it to grow layer 3, while keeping layers 1 and 2 open enough to preserve credibility and community adoption.
    - dahart 10mo ago
      That makes sense to me. Adafruit’s complaint relates to layer 3, right? Is Qualcomm changing the openness of layers 1 & 2 in meaningful ways that affect makers & hobbyists? And I guess layer 1 is PCB design, not [MC]PU design, right? Is that what you mean by ‘sort of’?
  - addaon 10mo ago
    > I’m not sure exactly what the concerns are, nor why Qualcomm deserves any shade. Yeah, the missing subtext here is the opinions of the folks who have worked with Qualcomm’s (software) org and products professionally. They’re… not beloved.
itopaloglu83 10mo ago
Qualcomm trying to kill what makes Arduino so successful and then wonders why no one is hyped about it.

Nice try, Qualcomm.

by itomato 10mo ago

Nice try, Qualcomm.

Some context for people who haven't been following recent the recent Qualcomm/Arduino developments: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/11/arduinos-new-terms-of-service-worries-hobbyists-ahead-of-qualcomm-acquisition/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/11/arduinos-new-terms-o...

dahart 10mo ago
I saw this the other day. I’m not sure exactly what the concerns are, nor why Qualcomm deserves any shade. I don’t know much about Qualcomm, but at least on the face of it, they’re keeping Arduino alive and infusing a lot of cash and expanding the platform, and they’re also keeping the board designs fully open source. It seems reasonable (and probably necessary in today’s world) to have terms on the cloud services. Arduino’s website itself was never open source, the chips they’ve always used aren’t open source. And it was Arduino’s decision to sell to Qualcomm, right? Why should the cloud services be open source?
- itomato 10mo ago
  Arduino has four layers, only two were ever truly open: 1 Hardware reference designs (sort of open by intent) 2 Core software (open-source licensing) 3 Services and “happy path” tooling (not open) 4 Brand and governance (never open) Qualcomm’s move is about owning layer 4 and using it to grow layer 3, while keeping layers 1 and 2 open enough to preserve credibility and community adoption.
  - dahart 10mo ago
    That makes sense to me. Adafruit’s complaint relates to layer 3, right? Is Qualcomm changing the openness of layers 1 & 2 in meaningful ways that affect makers & hobbyists? And I guess layer 1 is PCB design, not [MC]PU design, right? Is that what you mean by ‘sort of’?
- addaon 10mo ago
  > I’m not sure exactly what the concerns are, nor why Qualcomm deserves any shade. Yeah, the missing subtext here is the opinions of the folks who have worked with Qualcomm’s (software) org and products professionally. They’re… not beloved.

itopaloglu83 10mo ago

Qualcomm trying to kill what makes Arduino so successful and then wonders why no one is hyped about it.