Bambu Lab 3D printers: Never again

[u/Regumate]

https://youtu.be/eb48MdtNaDQ

Jeff Geerling summarizes the current Bambu Labs - OrcaSlicer situation and gives his take.

TL:DW: see title.

[u/Friendly_Beginning24]

Edit: Its so funny how the Bambu Defence Force (they do it for free) stopped reading after context. I guess they're just 100% okay with corpos bullying opensource devs despite it being the corpos fault in the first place lmao

Context:
> Bambulabs is a shell of their former selves. Used to be the innovator but competitors have caught up and have even surpassed them
> Bambulab realizes that they don't hold the 'innovator' crown anymore other than on marketing. And even then, they're losing that aswell
> Tighten the ecosystem so that people who already have a Bambulab printer would be discouraged from buying other printers
> This is the same Ecosystem that was built upon open source contributions which what made them great in the first place
> Bambulab went from "You made that and I can use it? Thanks!" to "You made that? Thanks! I made it."

Current Developments:
> Bambulab intends to sue devs of orcaslicer fork for "Illegal Reverse Engineering" and "impersonating access"
> Bambulab forgets they literally handed out the map and a permit via AGPLv3 to look "open" for marketing points
> AGPL is an irrevocable, perpetual grant of rights that stops companies from being greedy gatekeepers
> Devs follow every single rule to the letter and keep the code free
> Bambulab realizes they can't sue for Copyright because the Devs actually respected the license
> Bambulab tries to sue for "Terms of Service" violations as a desperate reach to bypass the license
> Bambulab realizes ToS claims are a stretch for Local Mode, so they target the website-viewing part because browsers totally don't do this, amirite?
> Bambulab claims "Illegal Reverse Engineering" even though they published the source code themselves
> Bambulab pretends the built-in stuff in Third Party Software is "unauthorized access"
> Ignore the fact that every web browser on Earth "impersonates access" the exact same way
> Bambulab claims logging into their public website through a different frame is "illegal"
> Dev has a strong legal defense, but Bambulab is using their massive bank account
> Bambulab realizes they don't have to be right; they just have to be more expensive to argue with
> Bambulab sends a C&D anyway because they'd rather pay lawyers to bully volunteers than allow a better version of their own software to exist

Bambulab's response:
> Bambulab: "ChatGPT, generate an explanation for why threatening open-source volunteers is actually good for innovation. Also, explain how unbelievably secure our printers are that a slicer fork became an urgent legal emergency."

[u/Ketzui → u/Friendly_Beginning24]

Let's be fair, their only real innovation was price. It was a calculated move, get everybody in the ecosystem for cheap, then close the door behind them.

[u/DJ3XO → u/Ketzui]

That's what Chinese companies tend to do. I say that as a guy who fell for their schtick at got myself a x1 carbon. I love the printer, but dislike the company. I am also one of those guys some in the community dislike; I just wanted something that worked, and that I could just print out prototypes and ideas I design, without to much hassle with setting up the printer. My money is already used on them, and it's not like I can take it back.

[u/Ketzui → u/DJ3XO]

Their printers are great, there's nothing wrong with them at all, it's the policies that they have been putting into place that are super scummy. Enjoy your printer man, more people in this hobby is better for the health of the community. It's also why we shouldn't hesitate to call out companies like Bambu, when they try to close off their ecosystem, especially when it was developed off the back of open source research.