James House-Lantto (He/Him)

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Keychron-announces-open-source-initiative-publishes-free-3D-models-for-all-keyboard-and-mouse-products.1269317.0.html

Keychron is making all of its hardware designs open source, publishing those files in a new GitHub repository for anyone to access for free.

The company's CEO noted in the announcement on Discord that “We think that making production hardware files available is a meaningful contribution to the broader hardware and keyboard community,

#Keychron #MechanicalKeyboard #OpenSource

Keychron announces open-source initiative, publishes free 3D models for all keyboard and mouse products

Keychron has officially made all of its keyboard and mouse designs open-source, including all of the wireless gaming keyboards and mice, making it significantly easier to design custom enclosures, mods, and add-ons for the relevant products. While these designs are not available for commercial use, the STEP files are free to download, and the community can suggest improvements in GitHub pull requests.

Notebookcheck
Apr 9 at 4:30amWeb
Show threadpedro 🍉Apr 9
@Theeo123 it looks like a Source-Available license. So, open-washing. Still a step in the right direction.
Show threadJames House-Lantto (He/Him)Apr 9

@ubik well I mean we are talking about the hardware here not the software.

The software was already open source and uses the standard qmk/via

Show threadpedro 🍉Apr 9
@Theeo123 still, it looks like they chose a Source-Available license for the hardware. That's not open source.
Show threadJames House-Lantto (He/Him)Apr 9
@ubik ahh I see what you mean, it's restricted to non-commercial use. My mistake
Show threadpedro 🍉Apr 9
@Theeo123 yeah, there's a very concrete definition of Open Source. This article explains why Source-Available isn't so: https://danb.me/blog/open-source-available-distinction/
Why the Distinction Between "Open Source" and "Source Available" is Important · Danb Blog

Danb Blog
Show threadJames House-Lantto (He/Him)Apr 9
@ubik no no I get that I just hadn't noticed the restriction when I went to github. I was too busy printing new knobs
Show threadAtemuApr 9

@ubik @Theeo123

This is actually an editorialisation by notebookcheck.net.

The upstream README is very explicit that this is source-available and why.

https://github.com/Keychron/Keychron-Keyboards-Hardware-Design

GitHub - Keychron/Keychron-Keyboards-Hardware-Design: Industrial design files for Keychron keyboards and mice. 100+ models with CAD assets in STEP, DXF, DWG, and PDF. Source-available, with commercial use allowed for original compatible accessories within the license terms.

Industrial design files for Keychron keyboards and mice. 100+ models with CAD assets in STEP, DXF, DWG, and PDF. Source-available, with commercial use allowed for original compatible accessories wi...

GitHub
Show threadpedro 🍉Apr 10
@Atemu @Theeo123 yeah, I posted a comment on the post, let's see if they do anything about it.
Show threadChloeCrimsonApr 9
@Theeo123 Great sentiment but announcing sth on discord does feel a little ironic