BrendaEM:
Arduino's are supposed to be open hardware.Supposed I want to mix and match Arduino's and Ch340 serial enabled products. The Ch340 chips are clearly marked, so they are not counterfeit.
AFAIK, chips have been destroyed by FTDI's attempts to thwart both imposters and competition alike. It appears that they are still inhibiting other serial chips. While FDTI should not have to support their competition, they have done bad things to people as well as their competition.
I wanted to try the CH340 Arduino compatibles. They aren't a little less that a real Arduino; they are 1/5th as much. Though, even if they have Atmel chips, I do have USB issues. Is that FDTI's intentional doing, or not.
I have FTDI drivers on my system. Why is there no uninstaller? What other product would your tolerate on your system that has Windows drivers with no installer? Would you put up with having to put up with plug and pray stings to uninstall a printer driver?
More problems and questions arise. Does any of the current Arduinos/Genunos have FTDI chips in them? Do I send my money to a company that engages in anti-competitive practices, casting doubt that even the whole Arduino thing is open, or not.
When I buy a new official, what do I also buy?
FTDI counterfeit chips are clearly marked as FTDI. If there are CH340G counterfeits they will be clearly marked too, and you won't know the difference. A counterfeit is only counterfeit because you can't tell it's genuine or not. For all you know, all the CH340G chips you have are counterfeit. If you ran the FTDI company, what would you do to battle counterfeits? FTDI is not anti-competitive when they take action to prevent their drivers from working with chips they didn't manufacture. They did one thing in one version of their drivers to brick non-genuine chips, and that may be stinky and an unpopular move, but it was not anti-competitive.