Why the Arduino Won and Why It's Here To Stay

ptorrone writes "For years, students, journalists, makers and old-school engineers have asked why the Arduino open source microcontroller platform has taken off, with over 100k units 'in the wild' — it's the platform of choice for many. MAKE's new column discusses why the Arduino has become so popular and why it's here to stay. And for anyone wanting to build an 'Arduino killer' (there are many) — MAKE outlines what they'll need to do."

Comments

Great!

[jason18]

It's cheap and affordable, yet it can do so much. The MakeZine section on it is great and has a ton of cool projects. I don't know why people are wondering what's so great about it, because it's really obvious why it is. When it comes down to it, an arduino is a $15 minicomputer.

Arduino "Uno"

[trollertron3000]

Arduino is the project, Uno is the board. There's actually a few other boards they've created: http://arduino.cc/en/Main/Hardware

If you like them you may also want to checkout many of the other microcontrollers in a Digikey or Mouser catalog. I collect them myself. Everything from PIC to Atmel-based, to Zigbee. They're all quite fun.

The main advantage of the Arduino is it's open source design. The other controllers are not as customizable _before_ production. With arduino you can add things if you need them on board.

Re:Agree, mostly.

[ivucica]

Do you say the same thing to the people who say "I don't like broccoli"?

I've worked with .Net and Team Foundation and never catched the workflow. I do not claim .Net to be bad, as I have seen too much good engineering done with it, and I have seen quite a few nice tricks in both C# and the framework. I do reserve the right to dislike the general principles behind many pieces of the design and to do so passionately, while respecting the work of good people who designed C# and .Net and who use it. Dislike has very little to do with it coming from Microsoft.

Immaculate Timing

[eric2hill]

I literally just opened the box of my first Arduino board about 15 minutes ago. I installed the IDE, plugged it into my computer, loaded the drivers, and sent a few sample programs to the tiny board with -zero- problems.

With an out-of-the-box experience like that, it's no wonder the darn thing is so popular.

Re:Agree, mostly.

[serviscope_minor]

I hate anything M$" is hardly a meaningful or valid reason.

Unless you rephrase it as "I don't want to get locked into Microsoft products again, since I had a bad experience last time.".

Seems meaningful and valid.