[makomk]

This is part of the reason I just buy the cheapest Arduino-compatible clones possible and laugh at the idea that we should all buy genuine Arduino to support the people who put in the hard work - it's been fairly obvious for a long time that it was a Wiring rip-off through and through. Probably also why the official Arduino ports to non-AVR architectures are so incompetent compared to third-party ones; the AVR port was taken from Wiring and just modified slightly, so no-one there had the skills to write one from scratch.

[thawkins]

My favorite Peeve about the arduino boards, was the half pin center shift on one of the headers that makes it impossible to just plug in some perfboard with headers on it and make your own shields. Thus opening up the path to selling expensive shield hardware.

[crb3]

> makes it impossible to just plug in some perfboard with headers on it and make your own shields

Not so. You just have to drill ten holes, using another piece of tenth-inch perfboard as a drilling guide. I've done it; it works.

[huuu]

Agree. I bought a better than Arduino clone for $5. The Chinese even sell cheaper ones but you must have some luck with the soldering.

[Tempest1981]

I also remember needing a non-standard USB driver, for a CH340 -- a bit scary to install: http://0xcf.com/2015/03/13/chinese-arduinos-with-ch340-ch341...

[huuu]

On Windows that is. On Linux they work out of the box.

[god_bless_texas]

I would do that but I'm afraid of the ftdi clones that can get bricked

[yuhong]

I think Altair and IBM PC both was at least original designs, but neither were they particularly good designs either. Unfortunately I think ANSI/ISO and other standard committees was probably poorly suited to setting standards in this area. The right way back then would probably be to design a reference system and release schematics and other design information.