Anyone surprised to see this????
That would explain the crappy firmware on the 101 and the reluctance to fix some of the major serial issues.
Now the question is, to continue to use, or to not continue to use. . .
I'd say if you are considering starting to use the platform then definitely stay away because it's a dead end road. There are much better options. I you are already significantly invested in the platform it might be reasonable to continue with it. Massimo Banzi claims there will be a new release of Intel Curie Boards in August:
http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=489411.msg3342568#msg3342568
but from Arduino's track record in meeting deadlines I'd pad that by a couple months to be safe. That statement was also made prior to Intel's EOL announcement so I don't know how that might affect things. I certainly feel vindicated in my advice for the OP of that thread not to use the 101 as a teaching platform. I wonder if Massimo Banzi already knew about the EOL at that time? Hopefully someone will continue to develop the platform. Intel has never done a good job of this from the start and I'm sure now they will completely discontinue all contributions to the project from their employees. It doesn't appear that any of the Arduino developers have privileges in the 01org/corelibs-arduino101 repository which is not a good thing but if Intel doesn't hand over the reins they could always fork the repository and Arduino does have control over the Boards Manager index for Intel Curie Boards. There are some long-standing significant issues with the 101 documentation that have never seemed to be a priority for Arduino or Intel to fix.
If I had been unlucky enough to get involved with the Curie I would definitely be stocking up right now while they're still available. Intel claims they are going to try to find "alternative manufacturers" but you really can't count on that until it actually happens and if it doesn't it may be too late by then.
It's sad that Arduino really got behind this board but Intel has just failed so badly in the "maker" market. It's amazing to see things like the Curie, Edison, Galileo, and Joule come and go in a few years while the AVR continues so strongly after so many years. I expect the "Euclid" will be next on the chopping block.
Thank you bob and pert - very active community and support here and elsewhere if you look for it - I enjoyed working with the 101 quite a bit . . . first project that got me hooked was the IMU/Processing visualization sketch, this was very creative and amazing to see it work after the first try!
For a different perspective on this whole thing, I recommend the latest Adafruit ASK AN ENGINEER - LIVE! 7/26/17 , about minute 30:00. Not an endorsement, but I found the outlook on this interesting.
I will always respect the long history and amazing current work of both Intel and Arduino.
My 101 will sit on the test board possibly forever then as I don't trust it enough to put out into the wild.
I may find a home project for it who knows.
Here's the mentioned section of Ask An Engineer:
I think that requires a bit of context. The guy in the video, Phillip Torrone, has been on a bit of a crusade regarding the licensing of the arduino.org boards some time before the announcement of the Intel Curie end-of-life. I definitely support him in trying to get answers about whether products advertised as open source hardware are actually open source but I feel like he's really reaching to shoehorn this Intel thing into it with zero supporting evidence.
They talk about the Arduino 101 being discontinued but it goes beyond that, it's the end of life of the Curie module entirely. You also have see this in the context of the recent discontinuation of the Edison, Galileo, and Joule. Surely there would have to be an easier and cheaper way for Intel to distance themselves from Arduino than dumping all the investment they've put into those products. Remember the Joule was never even used on an Arduino.
I think that Intel had no idea how to be successful in the maker market because they have never done anything like this before and didn't take the time to understand how it works. I'm guessing they underestimated the required investment in support software and documentation. They overestimated the amount of community contributions and the amount of administration that would be required to handle those contributions. They overestimated the sales volume. It's a common mistake that people new to the market think they can just slap some chips on a board and cash checks. There are plenty of dev boards out there already, what we want is something that is well supported and documented. If you can get the ball rolling then the community will keep it going but it takes that initial push and that's where Intel failed. It's likely that the chaos of the Arduino vs. Arduino thing hurt their sales volume to some extent. I don't know what level of involvement Arduino was supposed to play in producing the support software and documentation and whether they met their obligations. So it is reasonable to think that Arduino might have been a factor in the failure of the Curie module but it's far from obvious to think that the revelations of Musto's faked credentials and the licensing question was the sole cause. Maybe the latest drama was the final straw but it's also possible that Intel never even heard about it.
Pert,
Thank you for your analysis and thoughts on this. I have been very happy with the 101 and the Edison, and this is not hot-air, you can see my project page at: Gregory O. Voronin - Hackster.io
My feelings about this are in line with yours. I believe that intel is set up for their engineers selling to other engineers, not for their engineers to sell to everyone from kids, to hobbyists, educators, etc. It is a distinct and vast difference.
Thanks again for your views,
gov
In addition to the great news today, the man himself says the 101 is here to stay:
Thanks Massimo and Arduino!
Intel is Ending the Life of a few products sooner than many of us might have thought.
Curie and Atom come to mind.
I just purchased an inexpensive tablet in the Spring of 2017 that included an Atom processor released in the Fall of 2016. This Atom processor reached End of Life by this Summer 2017. So already, no more Windows Updates for new features (just bug fixes for a bit) for this Tablet..
It can be frustrating. Best to avoid products that have reached End of Life, especially products in a unique category like Curie or Atom, whenever possible.