I paid money for the board, so expect it to be working otherwise, I will return it.
Eberhard...
This is all well and good but if you think about the NG rev C that is one screwed up board. By your reckoning, hundreds of us should have promptly returned this product. Look, Im very understanding of this being an open source project. As a result I dont gritch too loudly when I have to unplug a resistor from pin0 to program and then have to plug it back in when its ready to run again. Or that I dont have an LED on pin13. Or that if I want my students to have some hardcopy documentation that flows and is easy to read then I have to write it. Or that in order to get servos to work I have to write my own functions because I cant get the existing one to work. Whatever. I understand that this is not a full time gig for those few who are primarily responsible for the production of my new platform of choice. I get it, I understand, and Ill be patient.
To draw comparisons, which I am apt to do, I come most recently from using the PICAXE platform. They have a license from Microchip to bootstrap certain PICs to which they tack on a $1 to every chip forming the bulk of their business. Their bootstrap and IDE is completely proprietary and closed and their trademark very rigidly defined. Because of their business model, you are damn right if something doesnt work 100% as advertised I am on it. But you know, they have some amazing documentation on their entire line of chips and dedicated tech support. This is all paid for by that closed hardware design.
Anyway, I will gladly gloss over the occasional buggy software or certain hardware glitches when they arise. I really believe in this platform and its cross platform IDE and the romantic notion of an open sourced project. I just think a little clarity with what is open and what is closed, what are the proper terms of usage for the hardware, software, and trademark would be nice. I also think if this is to be an open project then open it up and put some faith in the merits of an open hardware model.
Brian