I know the code for the Wi-Fi side is a blob infested mess, as usual. But by now, ESP32 has an open source MAC implementation, blob free.

So we know with certainty that it's possible to make Wi-Fi hardware work in a blob-free fashion on a production grade MCU.

Right. We also know how to do code signing and deterministic builds so you could build it and ensure the code you see is what is being executed and that is what is certified.

It's just rather boring to get all the ducks in a row to do it.

Since when is any of that a requirement?

None of it is a requirement to work on the happy path.

To work as part of a reasonably secure platform that still allows people to develop on it and responsibly sell consumer hardware based on it, yes, it's necessary.

I'm a big fan of just getting it to work on the happy path. In this case, the rest of it sounds like doing extra work for no reason.

If you don't use the "happy path" builds, the choice is yours, and the consequences are your own. Simple as.

That tinkering attitude is the root of the problem in the Arduino ecosystem.

Just do things properly - it only has to be done by the vendor anyway, and no one else needs to touch it.

Welcome to the swamp of code certification testing. If I'm lucky to get sources, I also get a PDF describing the optimization flags allowed, and a checksum of every source file. It depends on protocol and domain, but it is very real.

Blobs are popular for a reason, and it's often for the sake of the user of the blob not the maker of the blob.

"But by now, ESP32 has an open source MAC implementation, blob free."

Which one?

There was at least one that's in Rust, I remember coming across a talk about it. Done with zero vendor support - not even register lists, all reverse engineering and massive balls.

There are other vendors of Wifi chips. I could see Nordic seeing this being a great collaboration to further capture marketplace for IoT connectivity beyond Bluetooth.

The brilliance of the ESP devices is not needing anything not included on a basic dev board for a huge raft of applications. The peripheral design is positively wonky, but they do just work.

Making the reference design into a fully usable product in its own right at a very competitive price, gives Espressif a massive advantage over its real competitors. Espressif isn't really in the same market as Arduino, they just happened to intersect.

Arduino is an education and hobby electronics brand. Espressif is a chipset vendor that made its reference design board so complete, cheap and flexible it became valuable as a product on its own. Other chipset vendors sell reference design boards for development, with the expectation that you will change it and produce it yourself to fit your needs. Espressif operate the same way, but if the dev board fit your needs, you don't need to produce squat; you just ship.

Espressif is a massive time saver in product design. Before the first cirquitboard has left the prototype factory, it i already proven to work with a bunch of hardware because you could strap up a bunch of dev boards with a cookie platter of interfaces and prototype from day one, bought from a hobby electronics shop with 1 day shipping.