[janoc]

You are forgetting that merely the fact that your product is open source doesn't mean you won't go bankrupt because you are going to compete with HP, Brother, Samsung, Lexmark, etc. 99.9% of people don't care that your gizmo is open source, they want to print - and ideally cheaper and better than elsewhere. If the only thing in your favor is open source then you will fail in the market. Also any low quantity, boutique production is by definition going to be more expensive that mass produced models.

And don't get me started on the patent minefield that covers many aspects of printer technology. You will have to license those - or be sued into oblivion.

Good luck!

People calling for "someone" to make open source this or that are usually completely ignoring elementary economics of the endeavor. It really has zero to do with any sort of government tracking dots conspiracy (not all printers do that) or that there is supposedly no demand to print at home (if that was true then HP etc. would have been bankrupt already and not making more crappy consumer printers).

Oh and that completely ignores the elephant in the room - do you think that the fact the printer firmware is by some hypothetical magic open source now will prevent the OEM from DRMing the toner/inks? The DRM is not meant to prevent dedicated individuals to bypass it - only to keep 99% of people who barely know how to put new consumables in from using competitor's supplies. Those are certainly not going to flash firmware without the DRM into their printers en masse.

Most people don't unlock/jailbreak their phones either - they want to use them as phones, not to hack this or that. They don't have the technical skills required either - and won't pay others to do it in any significant quantity. Heck, if you want to hack your DRMed printer you could do that even today already, there are hacks and DRM bypasses for many of those DRMed printers online ...

An open source printer is a mirage and a complete red herring.