It’s not the license we choose, it’s the communities we build

Oshw-Logo-400-Px
It’s not the license we choose, it’s the communities we build. In open source hardware and software circles a lot of time is devoted to figuring out the best license. For license enthusiasts this is a passionate topic with unlimited debate on mailing lists, for folks shipping open-source hardware, the majority of shipping Open-source hardware still uses Creative Commons-Share-Alike-Attribution to display their intent. Maybe that will change one day as new licenses are written.

We think what really matters in the community we all build, the support we offer to our customers and the code we publish. Our guess is that most of the issues with open-source hardware will not be solved in court or with lawsuits. Creating and celebrating a community of people & companies sharing hardware for the benefit of each other is where the real action is at. Putting a strongly worded text file on a download page makes intentions clear (always a good idea) but in the end – it’s the community of people we’re part of that will be the most benefit when things go incredibly good, or the rare times when someone just wants to be a jerk.


Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards

Join Adafruit on Mastodon

Adafruit is on Mastodon, join in! adafruit.com/mastodon

Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.

Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.

Join us every Wednesday night at 8pm ET for Ask an Engineer!

Join over 36,000+ makers on Adafruit’s Discord channels and be part of the community! http://adafru.it/discord

CircuitPython – The easiest way to program microcontrollers – CircuitPython.org


Maker Business — “Packaging” chips in the US

Wearables — Enclosures help fight body humidity in costumes

Electronics — Transformers: More than meets the eye!

Python for Microcontrollers — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: Silicon Labs introduces CircuitPython support, and more! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi

Adafruit IoT Monthly — Guardian Robot, Weather-wise Umbrella Stand, and more!

Microsoft MakeCode — MakeCode Thank You!

EYE on NPI — Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey

New Products – Adafruit Industries – Makers, hackers, artists, designers and engineers! — #NewProds 7/19/23 Feat. Adafruit Matrix Portal S3 CircuitPython Powered Internet Display!

Get the only spam-free daily newsletter about wearables, running a "maker business", electronic tips and more! Subscribe at AdafruitDaily.com !



2 Comments

  1. Right on. I want to make open hardware to help make more and better open source. I’m a hardware geek, not a license geek, I really don’t care about the license. I’ve taken to releasing most hardware public domain now because it’s the least amount of fuss for reuse. Firmware that is for tutorials is always public domain too, but sometimes complicated firmware (often the real work) is CC BY-SA simply so I don’t need a written public domain release from firmware contributors.

  2. Yep. I’ve been saying that for a while. My “Open source license” is a proxy for “These are the people I hang out with.”

    Oh, and for us EEs, reading the resistor would be a LOT easier if we could just type 150 10% (for the resistor below). I don’t even think about them as numbers anymore. It’s just a 150 ohm resistor, not a 1 5 X 10E1 resistor.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.