Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
GNU is Not Unix Printer Privacy Hardware

FSF Certifies First Device in "Respects Your Freedom" Program 79

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the free-as-in-hardware dept.
Earlier this year, the Free Software Foundation announced a hardware endorsement campaign for hardware that respects the rights of its owner (no DRM, runs Free Software, support for open formats, no or freely licensed patents, etc.). Now, they've announced that the Lulzbot AO-100 3D Printer is the first device to pass certification and be endorsed by the FSF. Source code to both the hardware and software is available, naturally.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

FSF Certifies First Device in "Respects Your Freedom" Program More

FSF Certifies First Device in "Respects Your Freedom" Program

Comments Filter:

  • 2d printers too? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by welshie ( 796807 ) on Wednesday October 10, 2012 @11:23AM (#41607909)
    I look forward to the first compliant 2D inkjet and laser printers, even more so if they are affordable.

    • Yes yes. I was looking for a new printer and when the offerings don't self-destruct* or quaff ink like mana potions, they restrict network printing to "licensed" computers (what if a few too many smartphone users visit? Will it get overwhelmed and forget my PC?) or generally bow to the Secret Service (but I guess that's mandatory now anyway so whatever). *sigh* I'll probably just hold my nose and buy the best one available.

      As with video cards, I can't wait for a "third" group to come along and kick some

    • That would be awesome and certainly could go a long way towards inks that aren't made out of plastic (creating tons of waste) and don't have a ridiculous cost per ounce.

      • Xerox Phaser 8560 MFP.
        Have 2 in our office and I love em.
        Solid Ink "Pucks". No Plastic to surround em. The puck is the ink.

  • Not for sale to the Cuba, Iran, Sudan, Syria... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    ...uhm... isn't FSF against this restriction on software??... well, maybe they don't care about it on hardware. Cuba will have to built its own printer :P

    • I don't know if the project has any legal obligation to actually come out and say that; but those are just US export restrictions, not the project team's choice whether they want that to be there or not.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by kasperd ( 592156 )
      That's a business opportunity for you. You can buy them from the vendor and resell them in those countries where the vendor isn't selling them directly. I'm sure you can resell them with a huge margin. Just be careful with which countries you travel to afterwards. You may find yourself being wanted. After all, when it has been endorsed by the FSF, there is probably no code in there to prevent you from printing WMDs.

    • "the Cuba"?

      Is that like "the Iraq, and such"?

    • US law trumps FSF preferences.

  • Desperate claim for relevancy (Score:3)

    by SuperBanana ( 662181 ) on Wednesday October 10, 2012 @12:02PM (#41608501)

    This is nothing more than an attempt to cash in on the Makerbot closed-hardware closed-source fiasco.

    You know, all the people who were alllllllll about open hardware / open source? Until people started making clones of their sacred cow, the makerbot 3D printer?

    You know, the same people who then got absolutely ripshit when Makerbot went closed-source?

    It's a desperate attempt by the FSF to remain relevant when the world has largely moved on and ignored them...

    • What's with all the capitalist venom that stories like this bring out? It's scary how religiously these trolls espouse the dogma and supposed supreme goodness of an ownership society. They're very noisy, as if they're insecure. In a dog eat dog world, they think they can be, if not the top dogs, at least the plutocrats' poodles, rather than the next item on the menu. They seem to think if they put on a good enough act of devotion to these poisonous principles, they will not be skewered and roasted over

    • I am flattered. However, the reality is that it took me months of work to put together this certification program, get a contract in place, and to make the announcement. I began talking with Aleph Objects, Inc. in April and had hoped get it completed by early summer. When we were wrapping things up at the end of the summer we did aim for getting it out by Maker Faire and the 3D printer summit because that would be good timing ... but, I even missed that deadline.
  • Because it has only 90 days of warranty, against the 2 years mandatory in EU.
    Remember, the "AO-100" is still a printer, just like any (normal) printer. Apple knows it very well, now.
    The iPhone is like any other phone as far as the warranty is concerned.

  • For small values of free... (Score:3)

    by H0p313ss ( 811249 ) on Wednesday October 10, 2012 @12:42PM (#41609063)

    From the website: Not for sale to the Cuba, Iran, Sudan, Syria, or North Korea.

  • How would an electronic device, that is completely voluntary to own, infringe upon my freedom?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Arker ( 91948 )
      There are lots of things you can do voluntarily that limit your future freedom. There are also things that are theoretically voluntary, but for practical purposes less than voluntary, because possible alternatives have been limited by force. A trivial example would be milk. No one is forcing you to buy pasteurised milk, but in many places it is illegal for anyone to sell you natural milk, which limits your choices drastically, if you like milk at least.
    • For instance by printing, without your knowledge, invisible patterns on every page, which can help undisclosed third parties to track what you print back to you. I thought this was a crazy conspiracy theory until it was officially confirmed that many printer do this.

      Also, many inkjet printers won't print money :-D . If you try, their drivers will point you to a site where you can download authorized fac-simile images instead.

    • "Sorry, Dave, i can't save the recording you just did with your iphone9: there is a dr who episode on the tv behind you that triggers the DRM agent."

      But this is the future. The now is the friggin android phone which doesn't give me root without voiding the warranty, so a 800mhz cpu can't do the things i could do with a 166mhz PC.

      Strange comment from a low UID.

    • How would an electronic device, that is completely voluntary to own, infringe upon my freedom?

      It depends upon the language you use, it's not going to be taking away any freedoms (or "infringe" upon them) that you already had but it may not grant you particular freedoms. Moreover you may be willing to accept not being granted certain freedoms when using certain products - we all do this - for example when posting on this site you don't have the freedom to examine the source code of all software running on all servers through which you transmit data, this could be misconstrued as an infringement of yo

  • AC Trolling, part 27... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Since this seems to be the trend, I'll add to the AC trolling.

    Whether you agree with RMS or not, it is impossible to deny the signficance of the GPL and the GNU ecosystem he created. Just because you don't like bearded hippies who don't compromise their integrity doesn't make them insignificant. Obviously no one likes being told that someone else makes a moral choice that one doesn't, because folks don't think of themselves as immoral. That's why omnivores hate on vegans. That's why folks think religious nu

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Desler ( 1608317 )

      Be glad that there are people of integrity in our world who don't let pragmatism get in the way of their belief system.

      Why should I be glad about people who can never admit they might be wrong about something. Blind devotion to anything is not a good thing. The people who are constantly questioning their belief systems and changing their minds when they are wrong are the people who we should be glad to have. The world doesn't need more dogmatists.

  • Awesome! More products please (Score:4, Insightful)

    by gQuigs ( 913879 ) on Wednesday October 10, 2012 @01:00PM (#41609295) Homepage

    I'm looking at you System76 and ZaReason. One of FSF requirements in this program is a free BIOS, and we have a good one in CoreBoot (and it can make boot times faster). Worried about Secure/Restricted Boot? Get a laptop with a free bios, boot what you want.

    • I recently got a Lemote Loongson 3A laptop, it has a free "BIOS", actually PMON. The sleek aluminium look and 4 cores of relatively obscure architecture are just a nice bonus ;)
    • Hey, make a VLIW CPU, w/ its verilog code under GPL3. Not only will the CPU be GPL, but in that family, anyone who wants to maintain compatibility w/ the CPU will have to release the source, since a recompile will be needed w/ each & every change. Let the FSF get obsessed w/ perfecting a VLIW compiler, which is GPLed.

  • More of this please (Score:3)

    by jonwil ( 467024 ) on Wednesday October 10, 2012 @07:45PM (#41614165)

    I want to see a PC (that can run a full Linux distro) that has this FSF stamp.
    Or even just the bits that go into one (motherboard, CPU, GPU, RAM etc)

  • Thanks! (Score:2)

    by Yeb ( 7194 )

    Jeff Moe here, founder of Aleph Objects, Inc. maker of the LulzBot 3D printer. Note this is a printer which makes *objects*, not a printer that prints on paper.

    I haven't spent much time on /. recently. I appreciate the post and the positive comments from many of you. The others, not so much. ;) I typically use the nick "jebba", but this account got set up with "yeb" for some reason, long forgot.

    I am a long time supporter of free software, open culture, open publishing, etc. I am not a communist, as you can

  • I'd pay top dollar for a quality Android phone with RYF certification. Just sayin'...

  • Space is probably the best example of a place where when something goes wrong, not having the right spare part really is a matter of life and death. With a beefed up 3D printer, stored schematics to the hardware in space equipment, and a 'printable' material suitable for space use, they could theoretically create any replacement part they need on the fly to help avoid many of the potential problems found in space. If 3D Printers could also be tied into an automated mining/refinery process, you could theo

Slashdot Top Deals

Math is like love -- a simple idea but it can get complicated. -- R. Drabek

Close