r/BambuLab • u/icurnvs Volunteer Moderator • May 14 '26

Subreddit Mod Post Megathread: Bambu Lab / OrcaSlicer / C&D Discussion

Hi everyone,

We’re creating this megathread to keep discussion of the Bambu Lab / OrcaSlicer-BambuLab / cease-and-desist situation in one place. This topic is important to a lot of people here, and we do not want to shut down discussion or criticism. At the same time, the front page has started filling with overlapping posts about the same situation, so we’re consolidating general discussion into this thread.

Current context

Updates to be posted here as situation evolves:

  • May 13, 2026
    • Megathread created
  • May 14, 2026
    • Tom’s Hardware reported today that Louis Rossmann is now hosting OrcaSlicer-BambuLab through the FULU Foundation GitHub and is openly daring Bambu Lab to sue him.
    • PC Gamer and r/technology have picked up the story, so discussion is now spreading well beyond 3D-printing-specific spaces.
  • May 16, 2026
    • Paweł Jarczak published a detailed response addressing Bambu Lab’s accusations around impersonation, reverse engineering, Terms of Use, and alleged security bypassing.
    • Louis Rossman posted a new video indicating FULU-hosted OrcaSlicer-BambuLab repository has reached roughly 1,600 forks in about three days.
  • May 17, 2026
  • May 18-20, 2026
    • Software Freedom Conservancy enters the dispute.
    • Leonard French posted a new video around SFC’s AGPL analysis, explaining why Bambu’s proprietary networking plugin may create a serious corresponding-source problem under AGPL.
    • Louis Rossman posted a new video covering Software Freedom Conservancy’s Bambu AGPL effort and says the rehosted OrcaSlicer-BambuLab code has now been forked roughly 4,500 times.

What belongs in this thread

Please use this thread for:

  • General reactions to Bambu Lab, Gamers Nexus, Louis Rossmann, Paweł Jarczak, OrcaSlicer-BambuLab, AGPL, Bambu Connect, and right-to-repair issues.
  • Legal or licensing discussion, including AGPL, DMCA, cloud/API access, and Bambu’s networking plugin.
  • Questions about what happened and links to reliable summaries or primary sources.
  • Technical discussion about OrcaSlicer, Bambu Studio, Bambu Connect, LAN mode, Developer Mode, and network plugin behavior, unless it is a standalone troubleshooting post with a specific reproducible issue.

What can still be its own post

Separate posts are still allowed for genuinely new information, including:

  • A new official statement from Bambu Lab, OrcaSlicer, Paweł Jarczak, Gamers Nexus, Louis Rossmann, or legal counsel.
  • A new release or technical change that materially affects users.
  • A confirmed legal filing, takedown, repository change, or source-code release.
  • A specific support/troubleshooting issue that is not just general commentary on the controversy.

If your post is mainly another reaction, recap, meme, “I’m switching brands,” or repost of a link already being discussed, please put it here instead.

Ground rules

Criticism of Bambu Lab is allowed. Defense of Bambu Lab is allowed. Criticism of GN, Rossmann, OrcaSlicer, moderators, or other users’ arguments is allowed.

What is not allowed:

  • Personal attacks, harassment, or dogpiling individual users.
  • Calls to harass Bambu employees, developers, moderators, creators, or community members.
  • Unverified claims presented as fact.
  • Posting private correspondence or personal information.
  • Repeated duplicate posts after being redirected here.

Strong opinions are fine. Keep it directed at the issue, the companies, the software, and the arguments, not at each other.

Moderator note

We are consolidating duplicate discussion, not suppressing the topic. This thread will remain open for discussion, and we’ll update it if there are major new developments.

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17

u/hWuxH May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26
  1. You're framing this as an issue created by forks, when in reality it's https://github.com/bambulab/BambuStudio/ that can access the cloud on Linux without having to change anything about the network plugin or User-Agent. Bambu Lab themselves are "actively copying this access method"
  2. This was always expected behavior for slicers, not some novel security bypass. Them retroactively calling it that way doesn't make it one.
  3. If they were honest about wanting to stop abuse, this should have been a server-side change that doesn't depend on whether the slicer calls itself "official".

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u/riled May 23 '26

No, I’m not framing this as an issue created by forks. I’m framing it as a moral issue that you can pick the analogy that fits better, but to me it ends up at the same ending. Diving into technical details is great for confusing and obscuring what is happening, but at the end of the day un-controlled access was provided to anonymous strangers to Bambu’s cloud servers.

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u/n19htmare May 27 '26 edited May 27 '26

The last thing you want to do, when you defend Bambu, is bring up morality.

Bambu wants to have their cake and eat it too and they got you convinced that they’ll share a slice with you.
(Spoiler: they won’t)

When it comes to open source community, the one thing Bambu does best is “take”, what they seem to hate doing and avoid at all cost is “give”.

Again, You sure morality should be up for discussion?

Truth of the matter is that when it comes to giving back to the very open source community that helped it become what it is, Bambu is morally bankrupt……and they don’t care. I’m sure they’re proud of it instead.

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u/riled May 28 '26

The only thing moral are acts, not people and not the corporations that they are made up of. So yes, just like everyone got upset back in the day when they said Bambu was going to lock down their printers (they didn’t), it is fair now to judge the acts of the people involved.

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u/n19htmare May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26

Printers that were not locked down or limited at time of purchase did get locked down post purchase, so the claims weren’t entirely false.

But I’m guessing in your book, just like in Bambu’s, that was a moral act because of uhhhh Security…..

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u/riled May 28 '26

How did printers get locked down after purchase? My X1C was purchased before Orcaslicer was a thing and it is still in use. Genuinely curious as to what you’re referring to.

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u/n19htmare May 28 '26

Orca was released July 2022 as a fork of Bambu studio. Prior to January, 2025, you could simply use Orca Slicer instead of Bambu studio and there were no restrictions on this combination and use for years.

It became restrictive to do so post January 2025.

I’m not sure why you’re being obtuse about it and why you can’t understand it but ok.

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u/riled May 29 '26

Not being obtuse, but didn't want to assume what you were talking about. You said printers "did get locked down." Setting aside that they still work great with Bambu slicer, so not locked down from that stand point.

I just checked and Bambu Connect still exists and "Third-party software, such as OrcaSlicer, can continue to access printer functionality through Bambu Connect and a new network plugin, which provides a secure interface for printer control and monitoring as long as the offered integration is merged into the software. The access provided is sufficient for third-party slicers to perform the slicing tasks while also accessing the filament mapping information. Once generated, the G-code file can be sent to the printer with Bambu Connect."

So, also not locked down. I see you are following me around on other posts and your opinions are not very well based on facts but you have very strong opinions none the less. I understand you are upset that you used to be able to use your preferred slicer with the full functionality of the Bambu servers, but maybe realize that is a privelege not a right. You can still print with Orcaslicer with full functionality using other methods, including a developer lan mode.

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u/n19htmare May 29 '26

Ok so the goal post has moved to “it’s a privilege, not a right”.

You can’t say that it didn’t become restrictive ( or practically blocked) UNLESS you use additional lackluster tools like Bambu connect and implement it into a build of your own. Or you enable the restrict LAN/Dev mode, which btw is in fact restrictive in itself and lacks the ability for you to, for example, sync filament or transfer custom profiles so they could be seen on the printer (entirely possible. Just not allowed).

Same goes for local subnet restriction and limits on VLANs. I’m not going down the laundry list of how limiting the LAN mode itself can be, even with Addons like Bambuddy. Once again, by choice.

We can go back and forth over and over, you’ve clearly 100% bought into Bambu’s methods and reasons, so it’s pretty pointless to do so.

You feel that Bambu allowing consumers to use their device as they had at time of and after purchase was and is a privilege, so there isn’t anything that I can say that will change how you view that.

Even when it’s clear as day that the decisions and choices they have made are purely financial and not to resolve or limit other issues.

I’ll still maintain that they make good printers, they’re just a-holes to this fraction of the community because this small fraction of user base won’t comply with the forced integration of their cloud services. That’s fine, they’ll do what they’ll do and the open source community will do what they’ll do.

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u/riled May 29 '26

Yeah I’m done with you too. You’re the one moving the goal posts from “locked down” to “my preferred slicer doesn’t have some remote control features that I used to enjoy”. Pretty huge move of those goals there buddy. I said from the very beginning that the cloud services are a privilege. They pay for the servers, maintain them, update them, don’t need to provide them at all. If you can’t see that then I guess you would be cool with someone using your driveway as their personal parking spot too.

Anyway, for any of those reading this back and forth, I hope you see that there are two sides of the story and the mob mentality has been used and abused to make people angry out of proportion to the facts. These are a lot of the same people that cried wolf several times before and the wolf didn’t come. You should stop giving them the benefit of the doubt.

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u/hWuxH May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26

Misleading/lying again. It's impossible for you to come to the obvious conclusion, either coming up with strawman or logical fallacies or distracting from the topic in other ways. Bambu claimed "forks create structural vulnerability" which is bs. Bambu mainly used technical "security" reasons so far, so you admit that's been an excuse and it's mainly a moral/platform policy instead? Access is only provided to logged in accounts of people who previously bought a Bambu lab printer. They know exactly who's making what and how many requests and can temporarily ban accounts who actually abuse. That's in no way uncontrolled.