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Enshittification of Arduino Begins
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Arduino ☛ The Arduino Terms of Service and Privacy Policy update: setting the record straight
These latest changes are about clarity, compliance, and supporting the innovative environment you expect.
Here’s what the updates actually cover: [...]
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It's FOSS ☛ Enshittification of Arduino Begins? Qualcomm Starts Clamping Down
When Qualcomm announced its acquisition of Arduino in October 2025, the tinkerer and maker community watched nervously. Large corporate acquisitions rarely end well for open platforms after all, and enshittification is something that often follows.
And now, what's followed is unsettling. Adafruit Industries, makers of popular development boards and a respected voice in the open hardware space, have sounded the alarm.
Update
More mainstream coverage:
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Makers slam Qualcomm for tightening the clamps on Arduino
Qualcomm quietly rewrote the terms of service for its newest acquisition, programmable microcontroller and SBC maker Arduino, drawing intense fire from the maker community for grabbing additional rights to user-generated content on its platform and prohibiting reverse-engineering of what was once very open software.
In a level of open criticism that's unusually frank for Microsoft's corporate-friendly business-networking site, hobbyist electronics vendor Adafruit published a stinging assessment of the rewritten terms and conditions for Qualcomm's new subsidiary Arduino, saying that "the changes mark a clear break from the open-hardware ethos that built the platform."
Also in FOSS Force:
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Privacy and Openness Collide as Qualcomm Reshapes Arduino’s Rules
Recent policy updates point to a new direction for Arduino with Qualcomm at the helm. Will Arduino's open-source legacy survive?