RIP Arduino & Open Hardware.. thanks to Qualcomm [14:14]

YouTube ^ | November 30, 2025 | SavvyNik

[SunkenCiv]

Qualcomm's acquisition of Arduino and the company's new Terms of Service sparks major concerns in the open source community over privacy and terms of service. What will happen to the Arduino open hardware and how does this effect Linux users? We'll do a dive in today. 

RIP Arduino & Open Hardware.. thanks to Qualcomm | 14:14 
SavvyNik | 89.1K subscribers | 66,659 views | November 30, 2025

 

00:00 Arduino the Maker Board 
01:03 Qualcomm's Aquistion of Arduino 
03:21 Will Ardunio Remain Open? 
04:34 Adafruit enters.. 
07:45 Death of Arduino 
08:28 Qualcomm's Reponse to backlash 
13:27 My exp with Ardunio

[SunkenCiv]

• Arduino [search ExplainingComputers vids on YouTube]
• NASDAQ:QCOM [Brave] [DuckDuckGo] [Bing] [Google]

[SunkenCiv]

There's a lot going on in tech / AI / OSes / acquisitions. This subject is pretty geeky, so, in Bloggers.

[kvanbrunt2]

I love my arduino. I can code machines to do stuff. build the mahcines with a 3d printer. etc. I have a RC car and designed an RC boat soon to be available to buy the designs.

[SunkenCiv]

Sounds fun. In 2026 I may try something I can handle, like a local (not www) wired / wireless system of webcams, each run off a Pi Zero or some such.

[jroehl]

With technology, if you are not selling and displaying advertising, you have a hobby.

[bigbob]

The Arduino itself has long been copied by Chinese suppliers so as a hardware platform, there are literally hundreds of alternatives. The Arduino IDE has become an industry standard but it’s open source, so while it has value there’s no way to monetize it. And there are so many better alternative, such as ESP32 and Pi Pico that are supported by the Arduino IDE so many of us who “do Arduino” have never purchased an official product and only take advantage of their free software.

Honestly I don’t know what Qualcomm was thinking.

[dayglored]

> Honestly I don’t know what Qualcomm was thinking.

Easy:

1. Find company that makes a product that's widely used, but also widely copied, and which is free or nearly free.
2. Acquire said company.
3. Monetize their IP: raise prices, make free into no-longer-free, squeeze existing users.
4. ???
5. PROFIT!!

That's what they were THINKING. How it works out is maybe a little different...

[TexasGunLover]

That is literally capitalism and what America stands for.

[algore]

I don’t know much about Broadcom and audrino stuff but I can tell you all about what happened to vmware when Broadcom bought it

[algore]

and just this minute I got a 30 page document from broadcom on how to get docSafe account setup so I can get a manual for one of their cards.

I really dislike Broadcom

[Nervous Tick]

>> I can tell you all about what happened to vmware when Broadcom bought it

Preach it brother! What a giant PITA that turned into.

[CodeToad]

The world owes a lot to Arduino.

[Bobalu]

I have a bunch of those CYD “cheap yellow displays” with ESP32
processor on board.

They a bit short of pins though but these are great for a quick project... just print up a nice enclosure and they look pretty slick.

Got a good buy on a lot purchase at aliexpress... they were like 6USD each for 30 of them.

Also got a great buy on Bluepills for 1.19USD

I have some PicoW boards but never seem to use them...

Heck, I still use the occasional Tiny84 for small projects (I have a lot of those old chips)... just 20mips or so but still useful.

[Bobalu]

They have nano boards at ali for 1.99USD but often they are cheaper..

If you buy 6 at their dollar express they go down to about 1.7USD and free shipping.

[Organic Panic]

I don’t see how they can “end” Arduino. This sounds like click-bait “rage-bait” for the tinkerers and geeks out there.

[Organic Panic]

I’m not sure either. All I can think of they want to “own” the community. They may see it as a recruitment stragety too. And maybe train AI with all the little blogs and websites out there dedicated to arduino users.

Kind of like what Autodesk did making their flagship product free (Fusion 360)for hobbyists and making easy to use kid friendly software (sketchup) with a huge resource for “makers” (I hate that term) with Instructables.

[kvanbrunt2]

yes have fun. i even designed my own PC boards to handle the inputs and outputs and the arduino board. made in chine for $.40 per board. never thot i could do this stuff. with the arduino i have the car activating brake lights turn signals and of course the engine sounds.

[GingisK]

I love my Arduino.

There are much much better machines around. STM has a prototyping board that matched the Arduino foot print, but is a 2M byte 32-bit processor rather than that puny 32K processor on the Arduino. The STM Nucleo-L467RG weighs in at $14. It is a 3.3V processor, however.

[GingisK]

...such as ESP32...

The ESP32 has an external serial flash memory rather than an internal parallel flash. It really bogs down when you attempt to make it work hard. Pi Pico is a horse of a different color.

Arduino teaches you to download software and cut-and-paste applications. It really isn't a decent teaching tool. It is merely an OK application platform.

[GingisK]

The world owes a lot to Arduino.

It is a quickie tool, but a lousy teaching platform. It teaches a download/cut-and-paste mentality but does not foster actual understanding.