Conversation

Fans of Adafruit may recall a couple of months ago that one of the key people at the company made a series of posts on social media (including Mastodon and BlueSky) that looked awfully like online harassment. Besides some unprofessional stuff like name-calling, there were more serious accusations such as transphobia and doxxing.

Now, it seems there's been a falling-out between Adafruit and SparkFun Electronics. SparkFun has taken things seriously enough that they've ceased their business relationship with Adafruit. Here's the Official Response from SparkFun, citing a direct violation of their Code of Conduct:
https://www.sparkfun.com/official-response

This is bad news for Adafruit, since SparkFun is a major supplier of electronic components, tools, and devices. SparkFun also manufactures their in-house range of products, as well as having the scale to manufacture products for other companies such as Teensy. It's potentially fatal for Adafruit to get cut-off from SparkFun.

The response from Adafruit has been confusing. Rather than explain how or why they destroyed their business-relationship with SparkFun, they made a public statement announcing they'll soon cease selling Teensy devices: "Discontinuing the Teensy at Adafruit" (https://blog.adafruit.com/2026/01/12/discontinuing-the-teensy-at-adafruit/)

To make matters even more strange and confusing, Adafruit announced they're making a Teensy-knockoff^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^hcompatible board.

But, surely the most bizarre twist is this same individual from Adafruit has gone onto the Teensy forum to advertise their new products meant to compete with Teensy: https://forum.pjrc.com/index.php?threads/open-source-teensy-compatible-what-features-do-you-want.77584/
I think it's fair to say that Paul Stoffregen, who runs/designs/engineers Teensy, has shown remarkable restraint since being dragged into this drama and having it jump tracks and go careering outrageously onto the Teensy forum.

#Adafruit #Teensy #Teensy32 #SparkFun