Before You Criticize People Who Bought Bambu
Before You Criticize People Who Bought Bambu
tl;dr Don't hate on people who got tricked into buying a Bambu printer. Direct your hatred to Bambu itself.
We all know about the anti-consumer Bambu Printer changes by now. But I think it's important to remember not to make fun of people who already bought one. In fact, most agree with you that these changes are unacceptable. So those people already got kicked in the gut.
As someone who bought from Prusa instead of Bambu, I completely understand the feeling of "Ha, I told you so!" But spreading that on every post is actually counter-productive. Remember that most people who bought a Bambu printer did so because it topped every "best 3D printers" list, had tons of sponsored content, and were affordable easy-to-use printers. Not everybody heard about the potential for such anti-consumer changes to be made. And many who did know were often misled into thinking it wouldn't happen.
Instead of being critical of individuals, be critical of Bambu themselves. Bambu are the ones who screwed over tons of people who love this hobby. If we want to see 3D printing be an open-source style hobby, then we need to help people see the value in that. So if anything, this is the chance for you to make more people aware of good, open systems. If you make fun of people and point fingers at them, you are just making them defensive. Don't make them direct any hatred at you that could be directed at the company itself.
Hope this isn't too preachy. I just wanted to get this out there.
Direct the "I told you so"'s at media. That favorite YouTuber? It's their fault. Just watched a couple of them complain as if they weren't the problem in the first place.
It was their job to make sure everyone knew the risks. They are advocates, and highly knowledgeable, and ignored those risks when making recommendations. Or at best, downplayed them. Sad, really.
Yes.
You shit on the individual asshole executives. Not the people who got screwed. Not the company, which has no agency and can do nothing. The individual executives, including the board of directors.
Luigi has taught us well.
I don't think the printer got any worse ...
I've put it in LAN mode, blocked it's internet access in my router and I don't plan to ever update the firmware. Also using orca slicer instead of bambu studio.
Prints perfectly fine. Worth every penny from my point of view.
( I agree though, that their move is extremely shitty and I won't be recommending it to others because of that )
Bit you know what you are doing, and based on the terms of service, which says they can require updates for use, could be in violation.
I agree, everyone should do this, but everyone won't know how.
Glad to hear you're able to keep using it! No reason to get rid of good hardware. I hope other people do the same.
Pssh. With my amazing, unerring genius foresight, I predicted this years ago. All the dumb, mindless drones should have seen this coming, it was sooo obvious! Plus, I'm a fundamentalist, so neither myself, my friends, nor family use anything but open-source software at home, work, and school.
Seriously, that's how it comes across...
Most of the people posting angry rants about this news are not Bambu owners. On the other hand, most Bambu owners have no idea anything has changed, because we didn't buy these printers to mod or install custom firmware on or use whatever slicer tickles our fancy this week, we bought them because they Just Work(tm), work great, and are very reliable. I owned a hobbyist machine before and I just don't have the time anymore. I knew exactly what tradeoff I was making when I purchased from them, so condescending assholes can keep their patronizing I Told You So to themselves: this is not for you, you have other options and that's OK.
Side note: I also run Windows and Linux on my PC. You can diss Windows all you want but it has its uses and you're not winning any friends outside the Linux circle jerk community by being a raging asshole about it. The Bambu hate feels exactly the same.
The people that own them will definitely notice if they start making features require a subscription or deciding that you can't print certain objects.
slippery slope
Bambu made 3d printing an appliance. Before Bambu there is no way my ~65 year old mother would be able to own and be self reliantly productive with a 3d printer.
Prusa was close, but comparatively much more expensive.
I don't and won't own a Bambu, but if nothing else they opened the world's eyes to what is possible, now hopefully more friendly companies like prusa will learn from it.
They are good printers. It is just a crappy company showing their true colors... Which is sad for the consumers. Consumers are just the victims here. I never bought or owned a Bambu though. I always went with Prusa and now moving to Voron.
For those out of the Loop, what happened?
DRM They limit who can talk what to their printers.
Most noticeably you can only send and start prints (g-code) with their own program over the network. Either bambu studio or a "cloud" gateway from BambuLab. It is no longer possible to do this from within Prusa- or OrcaSlicer.
my take:
-
~~ for the X1C they allow to install X1Plus firmware. The community asked for it. BambuLab allowed it back then and still does.~~ At the moment rooting an X1C isn't possible. Either it is a broken promise ("We will give customers the choice to install third party firmware and root system at their own risk.")or just a temporary issue.
-
BambuLab sad that this will come. Only now that they have done it, most people are starting to notice.
-
Honestly, I'm just glad that going forward, when people ask which 3D printer to get, it's no longer going to be "Bambu" 9 out of 10 times.
Yes, but...
I do agree partially with your statement. But (as always) it's a little more complicated.
BambooLab was known for their walled garden approach and that they have apple as their idol. So in that sense, people buying it, did so oftentimes willingly and therefore enabled the company to pull these stunts. I'm not blaming the people for going with the most comfortable solution, but that's usually what you get
Others are prepared to invest a lot of money with the knowledge that they are promoting open source. So since companies like Bambu only use open source for their closed source without the cost and without giving back to the open source community, the buyers of closed source actively harm the opensource community. As example Bambu is part of the reason why prusa, for example, is partially moving away from open source. So yes the bambu owners deserve it and I am happy.
That's a very fair point. I also think the massive amount of outrage shows that many people didn't know the full extent of what they were signing up for. So I think is varies from person to person.
I won’t buy my wife a Cricut for the same reason, it is a closed system that the company can decide to nickel and dime at will.
Surprised that they switched to Evil mode so soon, now everyone talks about this, and just a few days ago nobody cared and those who did were the loonies talking crazy.
Presumably now that the security keys are known, it is possible to jailbreak your printer and never deal with Bambu ever again.
I would be highly suspcious of anything running proprietary software and connected to the open internet, especially now that you've got ignorant states like NJ and NY looking to prosecute people who might be making anything that vaguely resembles a gun part.
Same goes for slicers. Some of those don't respect privacy either.
This.
I got super unlucky here, and this news dropped literally the day after I bought an A1.I'm still going to try and force it into a usable no-internet state, but I don't have high hopes right now.
I'm unconcerned. I knew what I was getting into with a walled garden ecosystem, and though I didn't expect them to dive straight into the enshittification deep end, I figures they would eventually do something fairly shady. The real question is how long it will take to release the first X1C-Klipper refit.
Same here which is why I jumped on the X1C now. Companies like this always release the good shit first and each future model always lose features and usability bit by bit.
This change is annoying but not the end of the world. I don't regret my purchase one hit because the machine is top notch compared to what I had previously.
As it turns out, there's already a project... https://github.com/ChazLayyd/Bambu-Lab-Klipper-Conversion/blob/main/README.md
Kinda hard not to when every 3d printer hobbyist I know of warned people about this. But you right.
I f-in knew it from the start. I kept telling everyone. But it's hard to listen when every youtuber and their mom switched to bambu. I don't like Prusa all that much either, but they are A LOT better than bambu. So I blame Bambu, but also YouTubers and influencers who started peddling them from the start. I'll stock up on E3d v6 hotends and generic extruders while they are still available.
Instead of being critical of individuals, be critical of Bambu themselves.
Why not both?
The writing has been on the wall since the beginning. They had all the calling cards of enshittification. No one can pretend like they didn't know this was coming, they just didn't care.
Because they’re really good out of the box printers and prior to this for somebody that wanted something that “just works” it would be Prusa or Bambu I’d recommend.
I love tinkering and tweaking and I’m building a Voron but it’s not hard to understand how overwhelming choices can be and it’s understandable that people would choose to lock into an ecosystem specifically because it lets them just print.
I would never buy a Bambu and wouldn’t recommend it for anybody building a company with essential components having them in the pipeline but then again most people aren’t that aware and their research, understandably, led them to buying one.
I agree with OP, this is an opportunity to be empathic and to help them. And they’re learning the hard way a lesson they’ll take forward. I’d prefer that lesson to be “more careful” and not “these people are snobs”
I don’t get it?
How many people bought a Bambu expecting to legally and completely escape their walled garden?
All the “I told you so’s” and general haters can pound sand, their opinion and irrelevant smugness of something that does’t affect them is irritating.
I have 3 printers. One is completely FOSS, the other two not. I bought the two knowing that I was getting in to someone’s closed system and subject to the whims of the rights holder. Know how much Bambu’s change affects my day? Zero. Still a great printer doing what I want it to. And I also realize that a subscription might happen. Sucks, but I knew that when I bought in. This righteous indignation on behalf of those of us who knew what the score was is ridiculous.
It's not the walled garden that I object to. I had been planning on Bambu until now. It's the mandatory online mode where you won't be able to print without being online and getting their authorization. They used to have a lan only mode.
Yeah this part bugs me the most. So if my internet is down for whatever reason I can’t use my local printer. Fuck you Bambu.
I’m glad you are able to make a different and more suitable choice for your needs.
Well I almost bought one. I had to buy a cheaper one bacause of, you know, no money, but I was really sad that I wasn't able to get the best one. Now I'm a bit happy that I didn't
I was looking at getting the A1 with the multi material thing because it was fairly cheap and I wanted a printer that got good quality without me having to constantly tweak it like my Ender 3. Is there something else that offers similar at that price range? I just want to print good in multiple materials out of the box.
Shame bambu enshittified. I was looking at bambu next as I just want a 3d printer that doesnt start putting out pure trash 2 years into its ownership for no reason.
Stallman Was Right material
I bought one recently enough I don’t even have it yet. Hope it’s on old firmware when it arrives 🤞
Since your printer will be drawn from "old stock" on the shelf, it's more than likely it will have the old firmware included. Now, the new slicer versions may not function with it anymore-- and that may include Orca. But that remains to be seen.
Does anyone have 3rd party firmware, or produce a board that would compatible with existing 3rd party firmware using stock bambu wiring? Because it seems like that sort of thing could quickly be pretty popular…
Up until this change you could install and root the firmware with Bambu’s permission.
One idea that crossed my mind is that the open(ish) firmware started to edge into future product territory.
Bambu’s pages for third party firmware are still up but seem to no longer work: (I tried today) https://bambulab.com/en-us/third-party-firmware/plan?ref=blog.bambulab.com