The Free Software Foundation (FSF) has awarded its "Respects Your Freedom" (RYF) hardware certification to the LulzBot AO-100 3D printer made by Aleph Objects. This makes the LulzBot AO-100 the first device to receive the certification since the RYF programme's launch. The programme was originally created in 2010 to endorse devices that respect the customer's freedom and use free software in all parts of the product.

In order to be considered for RYF certification, a device must be able to be built using only free software tools, the complete software stack of the device must use free software, and it must not require any proprietary software to interact with it, among other criteria. Manufacturers must also provide free software users with a licence for all software patents which are owned or licensed by the device maker. The FSF also requires the manufacturer to adopt approved terminology such as talking about "GNU/Linux" and using the term "Free Software" more prominently than "Open Source".



The AO-100 3D printer is based on the RepRap MendelMax design

Source: LulzBot

"Aleph Objects, Inc. is honored to have the first hardware product with the FSF's Respects Your Freedom certification mark, and we're proud to sell a 3D printer that delivers freedom to each and every user", said the company's founder Jeff Moe. The AO-100 printer is based on RepRap's MendelMax design and costs $2,500 (approximately £1,550) excluding tax. The hardware is delivered with a detailed manual, other documentation and assembly instructions. The documentation and source code for the device's software are available from the Lulzbot site. Aleph Objects also sells all parts of the device separately.

(fab)