Following Creality’s relatively quiet announcement last month stating that it would open-source the K1 3D printer, the OEM has set a Reddit AMA with its R&D director, Ralf Luo, for 9:00 EDT on Wednesday, August 16.
The K1 arrived running a modified version of Klipper that saw the machine’s software missing basic features, resulting in a poor experience detailed in All3DP’s review. The shift to open source, which is scheduled for September, was potentially driven by a vocal community, which pointed out that the K1 being closed is a potential violation of Klipper’s GNU GLP v3 license.
Compliance with that license requires companies to provide source code for modified versions of Klipper. Klipper’s creator, Kevin O’Connor, commented on the conversation to confirm the license and that no exception to it had been made for Creality, but declined to comment further.
Why the K1 was shipped in such a state is unknown. We’d hope it was more oversight than the OEM’s attempt to see what it could get away with. Regardless, it makes for a good AMA question; as does the extent of Creality’s open-sourcing to come. Will the company just dump its K1 source code on GitHub and call it a day, or unlock the machine for customers to easily customize?
Of course, whether we’ll get any satisfying answers hinges on Creality using the event as a forum for transparency and open communication – and not a PR-flavored platform for damage control. Time will tell, but for now, let’s look at this as a step in the right direction.
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License: The text of "Creality to Open-Source Klipper-Based K1 3D Printer" by All3DP is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.