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Despite the clickbait headline this isn't open source
Open Printer will use the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license
The NC license isn't open source, it violates point six of the OSD
Also means that a robust community of people creating businesses to sell variations of the hardware for those who aren’t as maker friendly cannot emerge, correct?
Bc imo that’s what really got early 3d printing off the ground. Like back in 2010 during the reprap days there were all the independent maker storefronts plus a few bigger ones like lulzbot and makerbot (that eventually all got put out of business or bought for toxic modern shit like bambulab because in the modern day under capitalism every single industry has to consolidate until it’s under a few large extremely consumer hostile companies with okay products that just eventually get worse and worse bc there’s no competition or regulation for them but I digress).
Without this industry or a proper open source platform I don’t see how this will succeed
Also means that a robust community of people creating businesses to sell variations of the hardware for those who aren’t as maker friendly cannot emerge, correct?
Correct, that's just one of the problems with NC licenses.
Creative Commons doesn't even seem appropriate for hardware. Like, that's trying to apply copyright law in patent's realm.
It does have some very unique features, like if you submit a print job that is larger than fifteen pages it goes on strike
Hey, thats just like my printer
Isn't that all printers?
While I'd personally love to see an open color lazer printer more. (Less wasteful and more rugged) This is still fantastic! It's always been a saying of mine that modern printers are the torture devices of our time. This could go a long long way to right a lot of these wrongs. I will definitely have to check this out.
While I’d personally love to see an open color lazer printer more. (Less wasteful and more rugged)
I use a black-and-white laser printer, but if I were going to use a color laser printer, I'd like to have an open color laser printer simply because I'd like to have a printer that isn't dumping printer tracking dots into each image I print.
Yes, I have a black and white brother lazer printer. That thing is a workhorse. Still gives problems every so often, but far more reliable than any inkjet printer I've ever had. And far less costly to maintain.
It's spelled "laser", with an "s".
As people on HN correctly pointed out, it's not fully open source as their license only permits them to manufacture parts for the printer
Open source is generally about the code, not the hardware, even less manufacturing. OSHW (hence the clarification even though a bit longer) is about the hardware and has specific requirements in order to get the label and ID, e.g https://certification.oshwa.org/de000008.html and process https://certification.oshwa.org/process.html
AFAIK there is no terms that means open source + OSHW but I'd love to learn if there is one and apologize in advance if I missed that.
Anyway as I'm interested in the project, which part is proprietary exactly? In theory as they sell via CrowdSupply https://www.crowdsupply.com/apply it should be both OSHW and open source but I didn't dig.
It states the code and files will be CC-NC licensed, which isn't open source.
Thanks, I just checked https://www.crowdsupply.com/open-tools/open-printer and its says "Open Printer will use the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license for all of its files, including electronics and mechanical design files, firmware code, and the bill of materials." so I don't think that's related to the source code but rather the resulting binary of the built firmware.
The latest CrowdSupply project I bought was the PGB-1 and they did realize their firmware source code https://github.com/wee-noise-makers/WNM-PGB1-firmware/ and as GPL3 so I assume they will clarify that before starting the crowd funding campaign. I don't think they can, even if they wanted to, have a CS project without releasing the source code.
Edit: to be safe I asked on the CS Discord for clarification.
So a closed open printer. I mean, is it at least, like, see-thru? I don't get the name.
I would email the editor about the factual inaccuracy in the headline, but they don't seem to have an editor email address. 🤔
not open source?
Got it in one.
I could get into it if it were laser; I’ve long given up on inkjet.
Agreed. But a start is a start. More of this please!
the thing is laser printer is costlier upfront, Bulkier, heavier, needs more space and compared to inkjet printer
That’s true. I don’t print much (I’m happy to go to the print shop) but my wife does quite a bit, but not enough to keep the ink from drying out.
After buying two inkjet printers and having constant problems with the cartridges it probably would’ve been cheaper to start with the Brother laser printer I eventually bought. I didn’t realize that HP would lock out cartridges from their subscription on cancellation either (which feels very morally wrong to me).
Only for colour laser because they're much more complicated internally. My B&W isn't any bigger than an inkjet scanner/copier/printer combo unit.
Exception: Definitely heavier.
It's technically more money upfront, but you're not just buying the printer itself: you're also buying the starter ink/toner cartridges that come with the device. The starter toner gives you vastly more pages than the starter ink, and it basically never goes bad. According to Brother, the size of a starter toner cartridge is 1000 A4 pages. According to HP, their Deskjet and Envy starter cartridges print about 150 and 250 pages, respectively.
So that higher upfront cost doesn't just go into a better, more efficient machine; it also goes into quadruple the starting pages or more. There are people who could seriously never print more than 1000 pages, whereas the starter for a Deskjet is so small that you practically ought to buy a spare cartridge alongside the printer for when it near-immediately runs out.
Basically, if I'm not flat-ass broke, I'm paying another $63 upfront for an XL ink cartridge from HP for one of these printers. And what's the page yield? 430. I'm still not even near the starter toner cartridge page capacity after spending an extra $63 on ink. To me, the upfront cost of an inkjet printer is pragmatically higher unless I'm so boots-theory-of-economics broke that all I can afford is the printer unit and only print a few pages a month tops.
A brother laser printer solves all problems. No dry ink and no subscription. I should have gotten one sooner.
For now : https://consumerrights.wiki/w/Brother_printers_causing_issues_with_third_party_inks
I have one also so I'm invested in how this plays out.
Or a Canon if you can't afford a Brother.
Prints even without ink, and the software looks and behaves like it's from 1996 so it's ridiculously simple. It doesn't harass you or fill your PC with bloat—the software just hangs out quietly in the background and only pops up when you need to print to inform you of ink levels—it doesn't bother you with bullshit ever.
The only modern feature it has is network connectivity, which is honestly the only modern feature I need in a printer, so that I can print from my phone without having to boot up my PC first. And that's even simpler than printing from PC because you don't even need a driver. Just hit the Print option in Android and start printing.
It's not just that, they're easy to repair, and parts are available. I love laser printers, except for HP
I still disbelieved than we are living in the timeline than the fucking printers are DMR restricted.
FUCKING...
PRINTERS...
That's just the tip of the iceberg of printer issues. I'm in networking, don't get me started on networking and security issues involved in printing "solutions"
I used to work as IT on a multinational and have few things in this life than i hate more than printers and owls, but they found a way tonmake printers even shittier
We tried the owls in some of our meeting rooms and we scrapped those.
What's the point of having a 360 camera in the center of the room when everyone will stare at the big TV anyway? All the people at the other end see is everyone looking sideway to the camera.
I love that they also designed some ways to save space. Most of us no longer live in a world where we print multiple times a week. Printers just sit around and take up space while they do nothing for months on end.
This thing is small, wall mountable, and you don’t need to store flat packed paper.
These folks should win a red dot design award for this. Really smart industrial design all around. They really solved a lot of different problems, not just the ink problem.
We need to do something about companies misusing the term Open to trick people
Whoever made this now needs Freedom 🦅
Someone's getting assassinated over this.
Nobody is because its not actually open source
So that's how they're still alive!
How they can say it's DRM free ink if they use non refillable HP cartridges? Ok, the built-in DRM isn't enforced, but HP has the worldwide exclusive in producing the cartridges, and its integrated printhead is literally the shittiest one you can find in the market. Yes, you can drill the tank and add ink, but that shitty printhead is not designed to last more than 1.5x the original life. And 100% of the "compatible" cartridges are refilled old ones, coming from ewaste, so they will break/clog even sooner.
If anyway they had to reverse engineer proprietary protocols to talk with the proprietary printhead, couldn't they use the printhead of a $50 Epson? Way more reliable and at least it has 4 colors instead of tricolor for black.
Ps: if I remember right on the box of HP cartridges there's some legal language like "licensed to be used only with approved HP® products", so can they sell a product that uses such cartridge?
Will the Ferengi Alliance allow this?
The roll of paper is an interesting idea but where would one actually buy those? Are they a standard thing?
The world sorely needs this. Very nice work.
