@ChrisOlson wrote:
Since this is a blog post, it is mostly my opinion.
That being said, I wish the development of the APM platform would've continued instead of being abandoned. It remains, in my opinion the pinnacle of autonomous controllers - simple, well documented, stable, and reliable. Under 3DR this open source project went the route of stuffing the proverbial 10lbs of crap in a 5lb bag (aka Pixhawk). And subsequently the code forked because later builds would no longer run on what is perfectly viable (and economical) and power efficient hardware.
I wish someone would've had the foresight to see the writing on the wall with 3DR driving the project to develop a commercial product. And continued development for the Arduino chipsets and platform instead of abandoning it and declaring it "end of life". There's something to be said for sticking with something that is proven and simple, and expanding it with modules for purpose-built applications instead of just abandoning it. As it is, the Chinese manufacturers have continued to build the APM boards with improvements like simply removing an external jumper to disable the onboard compass (APM2.8) instead of cutting a solder trace. And I have found these clone boards to be very good hardware. It's a shame the software end had to fork and abandon it at AC3.2.1.
For me, the beauty of running a clone APM board today is that I can load AC3.2.1 in it and never have to worry about a new firmware update introducing more bugs. I've been a Debian Linux user since Ian Murdock founded it and that legendary Debian stability and reliability did not come from "cutting edge". Instead it became the standard on which many others are based. I consider the APM2.x platform, and the software that runs on it, to be similar to Debian. For those that want to play with cutting edge, then run Testing or Unstable and expect to have problems. But don't abandon the Stable branch.
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