[crote]

Sampling is a lot rarer these days. There is a reason your last two links are from 10+ years ago. Too many hobbyists tried to use sampling as a means of getting free parts for their personal projects.

Sampling is intended to get a sample so the company's expectation is that it will eventually result in an actual order. This will obviously happen when sampling to companies, and sampling to EE students means those students are more likely to choose your products when they enter the field.

Sampling to hobbyists doesn't really have any return on investment, so once they started getting thousands of requests they just shut it down. These days you are just expected to order low-quantity items from their distributors.

[leptons]

Getting free samples was always part generosity and part social engineering, even 30 years ago, before everyone in tech got an arduino. I'm fully aware of a company's expectations in giving away samples - even as a kid 30 years ago, but that doesn't mean a determined person can't still get free samples. The game hasn't really changed much. I'm just saying that the previous commenter's idea that it's expensive to get into electronics as a hobby is not exactly true.