Back in 2005, Arduino started as a low-cost prototyping solution. It enabled creatives to prototype interactive objects without having a formal background in electronics. Soon after, the electronics folks got interested in Arduino too because it also simplified their prototyping efforts a lot. But it wasn’t just a matter of simplification and ease of use — the hardware abstraction layer introduced by Arduino allows you to create firmware that is portable to different platforms. On top of that, with both hardware and software being open source, this meant no vendor lock-in. It was something that many people couldn't close their eyes to.