They will use CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Which means it’s not open source, and no-one else can sell replacement cartridges, parts etc.
It might still be a good printer and enjoyed by some, but it really annoys me when companies mix these terms up, almost certainly deliberately.
The cartridges are a HP design. The CC license is the smallest problem here.
Whoever made this now needs Freedom 🦅
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
A brother laser printer solves all problems. No dry ink and no subscription. I should have gotten one sooner.
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 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?
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!
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.
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.
On the other hand, we also won’t have any chinese clones (legally) that eventually force the original creators to reduce their open contributions.
legally
Therein lies the other issue, unless the creator has millions of dollars to fund lawsuits, if a large company or Chinese company decides to clone it he can do nothing. The only people who will respect the license are individuals and small businesses.









