So Bambu's argument hinges on "impersonation" claim of Jarczak's modified client using the same user agent string?
If a user compiles official BambuStudio from source, does BambuLabs then also claim their non-bit-identical client is also impersonating the "real" BambuStudio?
Or are they abusing user agents strings as authentication mechanism?
If they don't consider it abuse, but rather legitimate use of agent strings as authentication mechanism, then are they effectively openly arguing they left the user-agent-as-credential in the public repository? BambuLabs is going to claim in court that it publishes login credentials to its network in its open source BambuStudio, and then complaining that people actually use them?
If I bring my post-it with all my computer passwords to CCC and wave it in front of any camera I find, can I then sue the CCC and others filming, because they are spreading my credentials?
I mean if you do enter a legal case, they cannot just laugh away and be like "oh DoctorOetker such a silly case". They will have to take it seriously and follow all legal procedures. I don't know why people think law is some commonsense topic when it's highly technical and domain-based.
That's called a motion to dismiss and it does happen. Maybe it wouldn't in this particular case, but not every case gets the full 9 yards of examination if one side's argument is bad enough.
Asking what they should do is literally what they do. Law is not a commonsense topic where asking whaty they should do has any meaningful implications if you do not understanding the underlying theory and precendence which requires deep domain knowledge.
Serious question, I have a Bambulab printer now. What is a good next printer option? Prusa is way too expensive without a decent AMS alternative. Flashforge is doing some sketchy stuff with their maker site + AI. Is Creality or QIDI the best next options?
I’ve owned half a dozen printers (Prusa, Bambu, and Creality) and help manage a hackerspace with a print farm of mixed brands, and I won’t personally touch any brand other than Prusa now for actually getting prints done.
There’s plenty of other printers that can do the same or better and/or cheaper if you want “building and managing the printer” to be half the hobby, which is a totally fair thing and can be lots of fun if you’re into tinkering, but for a printer that just prints things as a tool there’s absolutely nothing close to Prusa and they’re worth every cent.
That used to be the case. Less so now - the Chinese brands tend to work right out of the box.
I run an Elegoo Centauri Carbon ar home, and the building and managing process was unscrewing couple transport bolts and clicking "self calibrate" button. From what I've seen, Creality is the same way now too.
Yes, the old Ender 3 I used to have demanded attention every other print. But it's not the norm now.
I'm sure Prusa makes a better product, and it probably starts to make economic sense if you run a print farm. But for home use, a 300€ box that happily melts plastic into whatever shape I need is a sweet deal. It even has a 50€ multi material extension box now, however that's on months long backorder.
As far as I know, Elegoo is offline. It has not asked me to log in anywhere, and while it encourages use of their own orcaslicer skin, it works with others too.
I don't know the last time you used Linux, but I've used it as my main OS for almost 20 years and have never really felt like I was "fighting" it. My system has always done exactly what I told it to do.
I also used Mac OS and macOS on and off for probably 20 years as well, and it freaking sucks in many ways. _That's_ where I feel like I'm fighting the system. And I grew up with it.
We Linux desktop people aren't fighting our desktop anymore. Everything just works and it has for some years now. Linux with Steam + Proton is a better gaming platform than MacOS, by the way.
The Year of the Linux Desktop arrived a while ago and nobody noticed :)
> Everything just works and it has for some years now.
Strange then, that so many people and particularly those who haven't spent years or decades fighting their OS or desktop environment, seem to disagree.
Every time a linux user says "everything just works" there's a massive gotcha. Remove the terminal and try to use a linux system, setting everything up, while properly roleplaying those who haven't spent years to get used to linux's many weird choices and you'll perhaps understand.
Choices are only weird if there's prior experience with something else with significant enough differences. In this case I still remember the effort it took to switch from Windows to Linux, but I used Zorin OS to make that road smoother.
I don't know about other brands or even models, but I can attest that the Bambu A1 Mini "just works".
I precisely wanted to avoid another hobby, of which I have too many already. 3D printing as a hobby doesn't appeal to me, I just wanted something that solved the problem and was relatively cheap. The A1 is this for me, it's as close as a fire and forget appliance as I could find.
Not saying there aren't better alternatives, just that it simply works for me.
The A1 mini has turned out to be a fire hazard as of recently. Some component in the power supply that can explode and in the worst case catch fire. Multiple events during the last year, and shockingly it hasn't been recalled. You probably don't want to run yours while not in the room.
I think the answer is still Prusa. It's mostly Chinese companies undercutting Prusa's price and they probably care as little about free software licenses and users as Bambu.
I saw this mess coming from miles ahead (and it will repeat itself), so when it was time to replace our Ender 3v2, I got a Prusa printer. Yes, it was much more expensive than Bambu, but at some point we have to put our money where our mouth is. We cannot talk all the time about open source, consumer friendliness, the right to repair, etc. and then reward companies that don't give a shit about it. So our money went to Prusa.
Maybe it's because I am in Europe, here it's slightly less than 3x or about 2x when you buy a kit.
European/US products are always going to be substantially more expensive because they pay employees better, have better labor laws, have more strict regulations to deal with (GDPR, etc.), cannot freeload on other people's work while violating open source licenses, don't get state funding to murder Western competitors, etc.
If you buy Bambu, you are supporting AGPL violations. If you buy Prusa, you are supporting development of open source firmware, open source slicers, and a company that is friendly to self repairs and makes it possible print replacement parts for your printer.
I understand that not everyone can afford a Prusa printer. But most people on HN have a lot of disposable income. If you choose to support the greedy, anti-consumer, anti-open source company anyway, don't complain the next time a open source project cannot be sustained even though they are used by large companies, don't complain production is moving away from the west, and don't complain when you get locked into cloud services. You supported these practices.
I am not saying that you are complaining about this, but a lot of people are, but when push comes to shove they don't put their money where their mouth is.
I assume you're into multi-material printing and want a true multi-extruder setup. Then, quality wise your remaining options are: Prusa, Flashforge, and Snapmaker. Snapmaker very recently just shot themselves in the foot in a similar way that Bambu did, so you're left with Prusa and Flashforge. Of the two remaining, I really only trust Prusa.
Yes you pay a lot more, but I guess that's some sense voting with your wallet... I'm personally going to buy a Prusa after I stabilize where I live.
Yeah, I'm curious too because I've been following all 3d printer news lately and only news re: Snapmaker is that they officially hired Ratdoux who came up with the full spectrum printing and they're integrating it into Snapmaker Orca.
Orca really needs a plugin system so that we don't get so many forks. I want full spectrum, wave overhangs, Snapmaker customizations for their printers, Sovol customizations for theirs. I also want the latest Orca nightly. So that's 5 different forks of Orca a good plugin system could replace.
The thing is, a Prusa will last way longer, and when something breaks it is fully serviceable. All the cheap Chinese brands are at best only partially serviceable. Just the other day I saw a post about a BambuLabs X1C that had to be thrown out because of a pully that was worn out and not replaceable.
Snapmaker (also Chinese) seem to be doing things better at the moment, but only time will tell how the serviceability is.
For me personally, the only viable choices today would be a Prusa Core One (possibly with INDX for multi-material, I don't care about MMU/AMS, those are just for multi-colour and with a lot of waste) or a Voron 2.4. My Prusa Mk3.9s bedslinger is still going strong though, and I don't expect to replace it any time soon.
Is it worth the upgrade to 3.x? I have the mk3s for years now and I love it. No issues at all. Bought it after I finished my freelance job at Ultimaker, as I had to return my S3. I wanted a premium experience, which prusa sure has. Considering upgrading the 3 or buy a new prusa core something something.
Second hand market for prusa printers is decent as well.
Mk3s is indeed great. I tend to swap nozzle often (different sizes, hardened vs brass) and the Nextruder makes that way easier. I also don't have a space where I can print overnight so the additional speed was extremely useful to me.
The Mk3.9 probably isn't a price competitive upgrade though, today I would in your position probably look at selling the Mk3s for 100-200 EUR and buying a Core One instead. But if the Mk3s works for what you are doing, then don't bother. (The Mk3.5 might make some sense if you only want a bit higher speed and network connectivity.)
Personally I don't see myself replacing the Mk3.9s for a long time, though an enclosed printer would be nice and let me print warp-prone materials like PC and ASA.
Thanks!! Speed indeed would be nice. Could go for 3.5 then. the enclosure looks better and keeps dust away from the buildplate. I think i will eventually go with core one then.
I'm not sure if a 3.5 will be as fast as a 3.9. You could enable printers you are interested in in the slicer and slice some typical models of yours.
Because of things like acceleration and flow limits the scaling isn't as simple as a constant factor but also depends on the geometry of the part (sharp corners lead to slowing down) and material (check max volumetric flow in your slicer, will likely be set way too low for your current filament profiles, especially if you switch to a high flow nozzle on the nextruder).
INDX is an up and coming option that will probably change how multimaterial printing done, hopefully. I bought the founder edition but it will be a long time coming.
As an aspiring business owner, I am looking to transition to a more open printer as the OCL isn't something I want to rely on.
If anyone has a flashforge check out the alternative OS with all the normal goodies without the proprietary crap for the 5m. I adjusted most of the original on printer display code for it back in the first version and I guess it has been improved by now (don't have the printer anymore). Would not recommend to buy one now since they "open source" their code but won't provide the makefile to build it which likely contains a bunch of external references. So you cannot build your own klipper code for it or update it in any way. They raised the "proprietary code" argument of course which is bs on the level of an entire herd.
Depends on your budget but I am extremely happy with Snapmaker U1. I print with ASA, PETG, and TPU. It prints PLA very well by default. It runs klipper, gives you full SSH with root. I installed paxx12's extended firmware using a USB flash drive - https://github.com/paxx12-snapmaker-u1/SnapmakerU1-Extended-... and have been able to get 20+ fps camera feed.
I think that you're just asking for printers that are strictly offline -- and by "offline," I mean: They don't connect to any mothership, ever, nor do they have any facility by which to do so.
There's a ton of printers that are strictly offline. Some are older and some are newer, but there's a ton of them either way. That "offline" part is simple to accomplish.
Can you talk more about what else are you looking to achieve so the field can be pared down a bit?
Thanks. This sounds a LOT like the bullshit Anker does with their (now largely abandoned) 3d printers. They forked a slicer and locked people out of the devices unless you’re using theirs.
It's sort of ironic that all the money going to "teach Bambu a lesson" is ultimately defending a guy who is building free tooling that specifically adds value to the Bambu platform. In a sense they win either way.
On one hand, sure. On the other hand, it seems Bambu Lab's intentions are to lock down their ecosystem and extract rent (ala HP and printer ink).
So, if the Vizio case works out for OSS licenses, then Bambu Lab's likely won't be able to lock things down in the way they're intending (unless they expend significant effort to rewrite code).
That'd "stop" them from winning in the way they'd like, to the benefit of the wider Community of Bambu Labs users.
> Bambu might use its software to lock its printers to its own filament and accessories and start charging for subscription services, the way today’s inkjet printer companies do. Bambu did not deny those possibilities when we asked [...]
Today's inkjet printers charge mandatory subscriptions and lock you to their supplies? If so, much has changed since I owned one. I know they always scare you into buying their things, but never locked you into it. My HP laser (not inkjet) printer will happily accept third party toner cartridges.
I could see them making working with third party filaments more and more inconvenient. They already do to some extent where the NFC tag system only works on first party filament, and they are not interested in opening it up, using encryption to prevent third party tags from working with their system.
I think more desirable would be to develop a FOSS server-side stack so people can self-host or use Western cloud alternatives.
It's nice to have pinky promise that BambuLabs cloud service doesn't keep copies of your model files, potentially keeps track of print frequencies (is this a prototype or a finished design?), ... it's easy to assume they wouldn't know what that jig you designed for work is for, but if they collect or buy sufficient data with public databases (where was the printer shipped? what business is registered in this location?); its probably very easy to follow and steal jigs / tooling designs / ... and to organize identification of its use by sector.
Western cloud alternatives might stumble upon other issue: western governments forcing said cloud providers to add filters to their pipelines. It might start as just a filter to prevent gun parts, but there's no reason it can't evolve into a filter that blocks you from making replacement parts for commercial products in general.
I'm in the market for a new 3D printer. My old Ultimaker 2 is still going strong, but it's from a different generation and doesn't fit my needs anymore. Looking purely at features, I really want a Bambu Lab X2D. However I hate what that company is doing, don't want to give them my money and don't want to lock myself into their increasingly locked down ecosystem.
Features I want:
- 2 nozzles (print parts with a different support material or a combination of solid and TPU)
- make simple 2-color prints without manual intervention (to add labels on parts, only a few layers require two colors)
- hassle-free filament storage (protected from dust and moisture, multiple spools ready to print at all times)
- a choice of different nozzles (e.g. 0.8 mm) which can be swapped easily
- able to print ABS reliably (or another material that is more heat resistant than PLA), the Ultimaker 2 with its open chamber is not good at this (parts lift off and warp)
- hassle-free operation (no tinkering)
Don't need:
- cloud stuff (I print everything locally, my own models)
You didn't specify a price range, but a Prusa Core One with INDX, or a Prusa XL could work if you aren't price sensitive.
I have heard good things about the Snapmaker U1 that just released, though apparently the slicer software isn't quite there yet, but you could just run stock OrcaSlicer instead.
Time will tell how reliable and more importantly serviceable the Snapmaker is. Prusas are renowned for both of those.
But what does Prusa offer for dust and moisture free filament storage? Why doesn't Prusa copy the "enclosed filament storage on top of printer' solution that is so much better then spools dangling on the side? I don;t want to but a BamuLabs I am willing to spend 2k+, but not on a printer that does not have a properly integrated filament solution.
What is wrong with a set of third party dry boxes, possibly even cheap DIY ones? I seem to remember there is a common plastic box that is made for storing cereal in that is just the right size. Just add some reverse Bowden tubes and put a series of those on top of the printer.
The upcoming INDX looks promising. But I can't see how Prusa solves the "dust and moisture" problem. They don't have something like Bambu Lab's AMS, do they?
Same problem with the Snapmaker U1.
Edit: the Snapmaker U1 also seems to have an open top, which is problematic for ABS, I assume.
Fair, but adding third party dryboxes (possibly even DIY ones, I believe there is a common plastic box for storing cereal that is just the right size, just add some silica gel to the bottom and a tube for the center of the spool) with some reverse Bowden tubes would be trivial.
Me and a buddy, victor teisller, hacked the most popular 3D printer a few years ago (flashforge) to turn it into a major fire hazard through reverse engineering the firmware update remotely. Changed the max temp of the extruder to the temp of the Sun lol. These things are a fascinating security target because they're an easy place to turn abstract digital hacking into physical repersussions that can literally murder.
This is such an interesting case because all sides are talking past each other and it doesn't really fit the pattern of past vendor lock-in / open source scandals. It's nuanced.
Empirically compared to most tech products in 2026, Bambu products have very little lock-in and are relatively open. But they are handling communication so poorly, they are creating their own drama and blowback for no gain while managing to piss off every OSS fan in the world.
Bambu's model is you can either (1) use the product off their cloud and do whatever you want OR (2) you can use their cloud but are locked to remote controlling the printer with their app. That's empirically more open than most home smart tech products (robo vacs, playstations, smart fridges, whatever) which don't give you the first option at all. Bambu literally lets you disable all their cloud and auth features with one click and use open source apps instead.
The issue is that Bambu made their closed cloud too good, so people really want to use it. Their cloud mobile app is way better then any other vendor.
Bambu has never done anything even remotely similar to HP requiring you to use their refills, yet people repeat this myth online like it's inevitable. Meanwhile the very popular eufyMake UV 2.5D printer literally has ink cartridges with lockout chips in them an nobody complains at all.
Where Bambu has totally failed is (1) they changed the cloud access rules after releasing their first products which people absolutely hate and (2) they are terrible at communication, making awkward threats at OSS developers who try to access their cloud without permission.
The funniest part is the only reason the developer was able to access their cloud is because Bambu supports Linux with OSS software. The Linux software isn't notarized, so they couldn't lock access to their cloud to a certificate. The 'hack' was just running the Linux cloud auth code on Mac/Windows.
This creates a situation where the actual details of the dispute are pretty nuanced, some people are vaguely mad at Bambu for things they absolutely aren't doing (like locking out 3rd party filament), and yet Bambu is still creating an army of haters to achieve basically nothing useful for themselves.
The smart move would have been to totally ignore the OSS developer and just lock down their cloud service on the server side. Then there would have been no drama and they would have achieved their goals.
Bambu needs to hire a western PR person who understands what is going on here to clean this up. The whole thing is dumb, avoidable, and pointless. Even if Bambu 'wins', they achieve nothing for the company.
The other nuance though is that Bambu is outselling other brands enormously and their sales this past Christmas were bonkers. No other vendor is even in the same league. HN readers will be buying Prusa or whatever, but Bambu is servicing a different market segment in which Prusa is totally irrelevant and has microscopic sales. But it's worth remembering that this entire drama is over something that literally does not affect 99% of Bambu's user base who happily use their cloud apps and have no reason to try anything else.
I'm not in the community, so I'm taking this article at face value. If I read correctly, he made software that possibly exploited a security gap, they asked him to remove it, then he demanded free hardware. They said no, and the conversation turned sour.
Why is everyone mad at them? I'm not blaming either side, but it sounds like a rather typical failed negotiation.
Sure, for context the image in the article captioned
> Jarczak’s code shows that his fork of OrcaSlicer identifies itself as “BambuStudio,” but mostly just by saying that out loud and hoping Bambu’s systems don’t ask any questions. Image: Bambu
Because they're unjustifiably being huge pricks [0] and violating an OSS license that covers the software that they've built their commercial product on top of. [1]
[dupe] Discussion on many of the linked articles:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48109224
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48175820
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48115127
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48115681
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48186583
Etc etc
So Bambu's argument hinges on "impersonation" claim of Jarczak's modified client using the same user agent string?
If a user compiles official BambuStudio from source, does BambuLabs then also claim their non-bit-identical client is also impersonating the "real" BambuStudio?
Or are they abusing user agents strings as authentication mechanism?
If they don't consider it abuse, but rather legitimate use of agent strings as authentication mechanism, then are they effectively openly arguing they left the user-agent-as-credential in the public repository? BambuLabs is going to claim in court that it publishes login credentials to its network in its open source BambuStudio, and then complaining that people actually use them?
If I bring my post-it with all my computer passwords to CCC and wave it in front of any camera I find, can I then sue the CCC and others filming, because they are spreading my credentials?
Or should I be laughed away in court?
I think the weak precedent here is Apple vs Palm:
Palm devices pretended to be iPods so that users could use iTunes to copy music to them. Apple threatened legal action and Palm backed down.
The ipods weren’t open source, however
and the designs being printed are most often the user's own, or else legitimately acquired through model repositories...
If I were to leave a key to my house in public, it would still be breaking and entering if someone entered my house without my permission.
Not saying Bambu is in the right here, but your view of how the law works is a bit lacking.
You didn't leave a key somewhere, you distributed the key publicly and gave everyone permission to use it.
Now you're threatening someone for taking and posting a photo of that key.
Funniest thing is how this compares to web browsers impersonating each other in the user agent string. Should Mozilla sue everyone?
I mean if you do enter a legal case, they cannot just laugh away and be like "oh DoctorOetker such a silly case". They will have to take it seriously and follow all legal procedures. I don't know why people think law is some commonsense topic when it's highly technical and domain-based.
That's called a motion to dismiss and it does happen. Maybe it wouldn't in this particular case, but not every case gets the full 9 yards of examination if one side's argument is bad enough.
I'm not asking what the courts do, I'm asking what they should do?
Asking what they should do is literally what they do. Law is not a commonsense topic where asking whaty they should do has any meaningful implications if you do not understanding the underlying theory and precendence which requires deep domain knowledge.
the concept of democracy is that everyone is entitled to opinions on what should or should not happen.
its a basic distinction between descriptive and prescriptive statements or questions.
While this is true, increasingly we no longer live in a democracy, but rather a bureaucratic technocracy.
Serious question, I have a Bambulab printer now. What is a good next printer option? Prusa is way too expensive without a decent AMS alternative. Flashforge is doing some sketchy stuff with their maker site + AI. Is Creality or QIDI the best next options?
I’ve owned half a dozen printers (Prusa, Bambu, and Creality) and help manage a hackerspace with a print farm of mixed brands, and I won’t personally touch any brand other than Prusa now for actually getting prints done.
There’s plenty of other printers that can do the same or better and/or cheaper if you want “building and managing the printer” to be half the hobby, which is a totally fair thing and can be lots of fun if you’re into tinkering, but for a printer that just prints things as a tool there’s absolutely nothing close to Prusa and they’re worth every cent.
That used to be the case. Less so now - the Chinese brands tend to work right out of the box.
I run an Elegoo Centauri Carbon ar home, and the building and managing process was unscrewing couple transport bolts and clicking "self calibrate" button. From what I've seen, Creality is the same way now too.
Yes, the old Ender 3 I used to have demanded attention every other print. But it's not the norm now.
I'm sure Prusa makes a better product, and it probably starts to make economic sense if you run a print farm. But for home use, a 300€ box that happily melts plastic into whatever shape I need is a sweet deal. It even has a 50€ multi material extension box now, however that's on months long backorder.
do these alternatives all share the same pattern of providing cloud services like BambuLabs?
As far as I know, Elegoo is offline. It has not asked me to log in anywhere, and while it encourages use of their own orcaslicer skin, it works with others too.
building and managing a printer is far from a hobby. it's like the Linux desktop people who just fight with their system instead of enjoying MacOS.
If this isn't trigger bait, I don't know what is.
I don't know the last time you used Linux, but I've used it as my main OS for almost 20 years and have never really felt like I was "fighting" it. My system has always done exactly what I told it to do.
I also used Mac OS and macOS on and off for probably 20 years as well, and it freaking sucks in many ways. _That's_ where I feel like I'm fighting the system. And I grew up with it.
I've been using Linux for 12 years and never fought it. Before that I had a lot of fights with Windows though, which is why I left it.
We Linux desktop people aren't fighting our desktop anymore. Everything just works and it has for some years now. Linux with Steam + Proton is a better gaming platform than MacOS, by the way.
The Year of the Linux Desktop arrived a while ago and nobody noticed :)
Well, you can choose to fight your OS (said with love from a Gentoo and NixOS user). You just don't have to:)
> Everything just works and it has for some years now.
Strange then, that so many people and particularly those who haven't spent years or decades fighting their OS or desktop environment, seem to disagree.
Every time a linux user says "everything just works" there's a massive gotcha. Remove the terminal and try to use a linux system, setting everything up, while properly roleplaying those who haven't spent years to get used to linux's many weird choices and you'll perhaps understand.
You can replace "linux" with "windows" in your comment and make the same point.
I've installed Ubuntu and Fedora KDE for less technical relatives and they've used them without issues.
> get used to linux's many weird choices
Choices are only weird if there's prior experience with something else with significant enough differences. In this case I still remember the effort it took to switch from Windows to Linux, but I used Zorin OS to make that road smoother.
I mean, I mentioned Steam and Proton, every game works now and you don't have to do anything. What's less "terminal user" than that?
I suggest you try it now, I think you're stuck on outdated knowledge.
I don't know about other brands or even models, but I can attest that the Bambu A1 Mini "just works".
I precisely wanted to avoid another hobby, of which I have too many already. 3D printing as a hobby doesn't appeal to me, I just wanted something that solved the problem and was relatively cheap. The A1 is this for me, it's as close as a fire and forget appliance as I could find.
Not saying there aren't better alternatives, just that it simply works for me.
The A1 mini has turned out to be a fire hazard as of recently. Some component in the power supply that can explode and in the worst case catch fire. Multiple events during the last year, and shockingly it hasn't been recalled. You probably don't want to run yours while not in the room.
Seems overblown, to be frank. Anything with a power supply can catch fire, my laptop included.
I never run mine when not in the room. I don't run any print farm. So I'm fine.
I think the answer is still Prusa. It's mostly Chinese companies undercutting Prusa's price and they probably care as little about free software licenses and users as Bambu.
I saw this mess coming from miles ahead (and it will repeat itself), so when it was time to replace our Ender 3v2, I got a Prusa printer. Yes, it was much more expensive than Bambu, but at some point we have to put our money where our mouth is. We cannot talk all the time about open source, consumer friendliness, the right to repair, etc. and then reward companies that don't give a shit about it. So our money went to Prusa.
It's a great printer too!
The Prusa i3 mk4 is about 4 times as expensive as the roughly equivalent A1. Their stuff also seems to have less features and less polish.
I get voting with your wallet but not many people want to spend 4x more for a worse product.
Maybe it's because I am in Europe, here it's slightly less than 3x or about 2x when you buy a kit.
European/US products are always going to be substantially more expensive because they pay employees better, have better labor laws, have more strict regulations to deal with (GDPR, etc.), cannot freeload on other people's work while violating open source licenses, don't get state funding to murder Western competitors, etc.
If you buy Bambu, you are supporting AGPL violations. If you buy Prusa, you are supporting development of open source firmware, open source slicers, and a company that is friendly to self repairs and makes it possible print replacement parts for your printer.
I understand that not everyone can afford a Prusa printer. But most people on HN have a lot of disposable income. If you choose to support the greedy, anti-consumer, anti-open source company anyway, don't complain the next time a open source project cannot be sustained even though they are used by large companies, don't complain production is moving away from the west, and don't complain when you get locked into cloud services. You supported these practices.
I am not saying that you are complaining about this, but a lot of people are, but when push comes to shove they don't put their money where their mouth is.
I got a P1S for 500€ and what was already at the limit of my budget for what I use the 3D printer for (very sporadic small parts/gadgets)
I assume you're into multi-material printing and want a true multi-extruder setup. Then, quality wise your remaining options are: Prusa, Flashforge, and Snapmaker. Snapmaker very recently just shot themselves in the foot in a similar way that Bambu did, so you're left with Prusa and Flashforge. Of the two remaining, I really only trust Prusa.
Yes you pay a lot more, but I guess that's some sense voting with your wallet... I'm personally going to buy a Prusa after I stabilize where I live.
Another option would be a Voron kit with INDX or some other tool changer added to it.
(Also, what did Snapmaker do? I thought they were relatively innocuous?)
Yeah, I'm curious too because I've been following all 3d printer news lately and only news re: Snapmaker is that they officially hired Ratdoux who came up with the full spectrum printing and they're integrating it into Snapmaker Orca.
Orca really needs a plugin system so that we don't get so many forks. I want full spectrum, wave overhangs, Snapmaker customizations for their printers, Sovol customizations for theirs. I also want the latest Orca nightly. So that's 5 different forks of Orca a good plugin system could replace.
The thing is, a Prusa will last way longer, and when something breaks it is fully serviceable. All the cheap Chinese brands are at best only partially serviceable. Just the other day I saw a post about a BambuLabs X1C that had to be thrown out because of a pully that was worn out and not replaceable.
Snapmaker (also Chinese) seem to be doing things better at the moment, but only time will tell how the serviceability is.
For me personally, the only viable choices today would be a Prusa Core One (possibly with INDX for multi-material, I don't care about MMU/AMS, those are just for multi-colour and with a lot of waste) or a Voron 2.4. My Prusa Mk3.9s bedslinger is still going strong though, and I don't expect to replace it any time soon.
Is it worth the upgrade to 3.x? I have the mk3s for years now and I love it. No issues at all. Bought it after I finished my freelance job at Ultimaker, as I had to return my S3. I wanted a premium experience, which prusa sure has. Considering upgrading the 3 or buy a new prusa core something something.
Second hand market for prusa printers is decent as well.
Mk3s is indeed great. I tend to swap nozzle often (different sizes, hardened vs brass) and the Nextruder makes that way easier. I also don't have a space where I can print overnight so the additional speed was extremely useful to me.
The Mk3.9 probably isn't a price competitive upgrade though, today I would in your position probably look at selling the Mk3s for 100-200 EUR and buying a Core One instead. But if the Mk3s works for what you are doing, then don't bother. (The Mk3.5 might make some sense if you only want a bit higher speed and network connectivity.)
Personally I don't see myself replacing the Mk3.9s for a long time, though an enclosed printer would be nice and let me print warp-prone materials like PC and ASA.
Thanks!! Speed indeed would be nice. Could go for 3.5 then. the enclosure looks better and keeps dust away from the buildplate. I think i will eventually go with core one then.
I'm not sure if a 3.5 will be as fast as a 3.9. You could enable printers you are interested in in the slicer and slice some typical models of yours.
Because of things like acceleration and flow limits the scaling isn't as simple as a constant factor but also depends on the geometry of the part (sharp corners lead to slowing down) and material (check max volumetric flow in your slicer, will likely be set way too low for your current filament profiles, especially if you switch to a high flow nozzle on the nextruder).
INDX is an up and coming option that will probably change how multimaterial printing done, hopefully. I bought the founder edition but it will be a long time coming.
As an aspiring business owner, I am looking to transition to a more open printer as the OCL isn't something I want to rely on.
What’s wrong with the OCL if you’re a business owner?
I don't want to ask Prusa for permission.
Permission to do what exactly?
Was there something before the OCL you could / were planning to do that the OCL now prohibits?
I don't know why it's so mysterious for you. It's not an open hardware platform and prusa is the gatekeeper here.
If anyone has a flashforge check out the alternative OS with all the normal goodies without the proprietary crap for the 5m. I adjusted most of the original on printer display code for it back in the first version and I guess it has been improved by now (don't have the printer anymore). Would not recommend to buy one now since they "open source" their code but won't provide the makefile to build it which likely contains a bunch of external references. So you cannot build your own klipper code for it or update it in any way. They raised the "proprietary code" argument of course which is bs on the level of an entire herd.
Depends on your budget but I am extremely happy with Snapmaker U1. I print with ASA, PETG, and TPU. It prints PLA very well by default. It runs klipper, gives you full SSH with root. I installed paxx12's extended firmware using a USB flash drive - https://github.com/paxx12-snapmaker-u1/SnapmakerU1-Extended-... and have been able to get 20+ fps camera feed.
I think that you're just asking for printers that are strictly offline -- and by "offline," I mean: They don't connect to any mothership, ever, nor do they have any facility by which to do so.
There's a ton of printers that are strictly offline. Some are older and some are newer, but there's a ton of them either way. That "offline" part is simple to accomplish.
Can you talk more about what else are you looking to achieve so the field can be pared down a bit?
Prusa is awesome, and a great next printer once you know you're in.
https://archive.is/p6ufq
Weirdly, archive.is is timing out for me whereas archive.vn is working: https://archive.vn/p6ufq
Thanks. This sounds a LOT like the bullshit Anker does with their (now largely abandoned) 3d printers. They forked a slicer and locked people out of the devices unless you’re using theirs.
It's sort of ironic that all the money going to "teach Bambu a lesson" is ultimately defending a guy who is building free tooling that specifically adds value to the Bambu platform. In a sense they win either way.
On one hand, sure. On the other hand, it seems Bambu Lab's intentions are to lock down their ecosystem and extract rent (ala HP and printer ink).
So, if the Vizio case works out for OSS licenses, then Bambu Lab's likely won't be able to lock things down in the way they're intending (unless they expend significant effort to rewrite code).
That'd "stop" them from winning in the way they'd like, to the benefit of the wider Community of Bambu Labs users.
Extract rent how? Mandatory paid subscription?
I cannot see the future but I believe this fear is unsubstantiated.
From the article:
> Bambu might use its software to lock its printers to its own filament and accessories and start charging for subscription services, the way today’s inkjet printer companies do. Bambu did not deny those possibilities when we asked [...]
Today's inkjet printers charge mandatory subscriptions and lock you to their supplies? If so, much has changed since I owned one. I know they always scare you into buying their things, but never locked you into it. My HP laser (not inkjet) printer will happily accept third party toner cartridges.
> Today's inkjet printers charge mandatory subscriptions and lock you to their supplies?
I guess you're not aware HP has been doing this for a few years now?
I could see them making working with third party filaments more and more inconvenient. They already do to some extent where the NFC tag system only works on first party filament, and they are not interested in opening it up, using encryption to prevent third party tags from working with their system.
I think more desirable would be to develop a FOSS server-side stack so people can self-host or use Western cloud alternatives.
It's nice to have pinky promise that BambuLabs cloud service doesn't keep copies of your model files, potentially keeps track of print frequencies (is this a prototype or a finished design?), ... it's easy to assume they wouldn't know what that jig you designed for work is for, but if they collect or buy sufficient data with public databases (where was the printer shipped? what business is registered in this location?); its probably very easy to follow and steal jigs / tooling designs / ... and to organize identification of its use by sector.
Western cloud alternatives might stumble upon other issue: western governments forcing said cloud providers to add filters to their pipelines. It might start as just a filter to prevent gun parts, but there's no reason it can't evolve into a filter that blocks you from making replacement parts for commercial products in general.
Offline/LAN mode is, truly, the only solution.
hence the self-serving FOSS option
I've just bought my first 3D printer and I decided against Bamboo because of the drama that has happened lately, and I'm glad I did.
I have a problem:
I'm in the market for a new 3D printer. My old Ultimaker 2 is still going strong, but it's from a different generation and doesn't fit my needs anymore. Looking purely at features, I really want a Bambu Lab X2D. However I hate what that company is doing, don't want to give them my money and don't want to lock myself into their increasingly locked down ecosystem.
Features I want:
- 2 nozzles (print parts with a different support material or a combination of solid and TPU)
- make simple 2-color prints without manual intervention (to add labels on parts, only a few layers require two colors)
- hassle-free filament storage (protected from dust and moisture, multiple spools ready to print at all times)
- a choice of different nozzles (e.g. 0.8 mm) which can be swapped easily
- able to print ABS reliably (or another material that is more heat resistant than PLA), the Ultimaker 2 with its open chamber is not good at this (parts lift off and warp)
- hassle-free operation (no tinkering)
Don't need:
- cloud stuff (I print everything locally, my own models)
What should I buy?
You didn't specify a price range, but a Prusa Core One with INDX, or a Prusa XL could work if you aren't price sensitive.
I have heard good things about the Snapmaker U1 that just released, though apparently the slicer software isn't quite there yet, but you could just run stock OrcaSlicer instead.
Time will tell how reliable and more importantly serviceable the Snapmaker is. Prusas are renowned for both of those.
But what does Prusa offer for dust and moisture free filament storage? Why doesn't Prusa copy the "enclosed filament storage on top of printer' solution that is so much better then spools dangling on the side? I don;t want to but a BamuLabs I am willing to spend 2k+, but not on a printer that does not have a properly integrated filament solution.
What is wrong with a set of third party dry boxes, possibly even cheap DIY ones? I seem to remember there is a common plastic box that is made for storing cereal in that is just the right size. Just add some reverse Bowden tubes and put a series of those on top of the printer.
https://www.printables.com/search/models?q=drybox shows plenty of fancier alternatives as well.
The upcoming INDX looks promising. But I can't see how Prusa solves the "dust and moisture" problem. They don't have something like Bambu Lab's AMS, do they?
Same problem with the Snapmaker U1.
Edit: the Snapmaker U1 also seems to have an open top, which is problematic for ABS, I assume.
Fair, but adding third party dryboxes (possibly even DIY ones, I believe there is a common plastic box for storing cereal that is just the right size, just add some silica gel to the bottom and a tube for the center of the spool) with some reverse Bowden tubes would be trivial.
EDIT: See also https://www.printables.com/search/models?q=drybox for plenty of more fancy alternatives, including some for mounting on top of the printer.
See if Qidi meets your requirements
They all seem to be single nozzle.
How is this a dupe? It's new information, and my take is that it's one of the least biased articles about the topic.
Me and a buddy, victor teisller, hacked the most popular 3D printer a few years ago (flashforge) to turn it into a major fire hazard through reverse engineering the firmware update remotely. Changed the max temp of the extruder to the temp of the Sun lol. These things are a fascinating security target because they're an easy place to turn abstract digital hacking into physical repersussions that can literally murder.
https://www.theregister.com/security/2020/04/13/how-to-make-...
This is such an interesting case because all sides are talking past each other and it doesn't really fit the pattern of past vendor lock-in / open source scandals. It's nuanced.
Empirically compared to most tech products in 2026, Bambu products have very little lock-in and are relatively open. But they are handling communication so poorly, they are creating their own drama and blowback for no gain while managing to piss off every OSS fan in the world.
Bambu's model is you can either (1) use the product off their cloud and do whatever you want OR (2) you can use their cloud but are locked to remote controlling the printer with their app. That's empirically more open than most home smart tech products (robo vacs, playstations, smart fridges, whatever) which don't give you the first option at all. Bambu literally lets you disable all their cloud and auth features with one click and use open source apps instead.
The issue is that Bambu made their closed cloud too good, so people really want to use it. Their cloud mobile app is way better then any other vendor.
Bambu has never done anything even remotely similar to HP requiring you to use their refills, yet people repeat this myth online like it's inevitable. Meanwhile the very popular eufyMake UV 2.5D printer literally has ink cartridges with lockout chips in them an nobody complains at all.
Where Bambu has totally failed is (1) they changed the cloud access rules after releasing their first products which people absolutely hate and (2) they are terrible at communication, making awkward threats at OSS developers who try to access their cloud without permission.
The funniest part is the only reason the developer was able to access their cloud is because Bambu supports Linux with OSS software. The Linux software isn't notarized, so they couldn't lock access to their cloud to a certificate. The 'hack' was just running the Linux cloud auth code on Mac/Windows.
This creates a situation where the actual details of the dispute are pretty nuanced, some people are vaguely mad at Bambu for things they absolutely aren't doing (like locking out 3rd party filament), and yet Bambu is still creating an army of haters to achieve basically nothing useful for themselves.
The smart move would have been to totally ignore the OSS developer and just lock down their cloud service on the server side. Then there would have been no drama and they would have achieved their goals.
Bambu needs to hire a western PR person who understands what is going on here to clean this up. The whole thing is dumb, avoidable, and pointless. Even if Bambu 'wins', they achieve nothing for the company.
The other nuance though is that Bambu is outselling other brands enormously and their sales this past Christmas were bonkers. No other vendor is even in the same league. HN readers will be buying Prusa or whatever, but Bambu is servicing a different market segment in which Prusa is totally irrelevant and has microscopic sales. But it's worth remembering that this entire drama is over something that literally does not affect 99% of Bambu's user base who happily use their cloud apps and have no reason to try anything else.
I wonder whether Bambu printers run Doom.
I'm not in the community, so I'm taking this article at face value. If I read correctly, he made software that possibly exploited a security gap, they asked him to remove it, then he demanded free hardware. They said no, and the conversation turned sour.
Why is everyone mad at them? I'm not blaming either side, but it sounds like a rather typical failed negotiation.
> that possibly exploited a security gap
It set a HTTP user agent string...
I'm quoting the article without technical analysis or personal biases.
> But he wanted to be “properly acknowledged” for possibly revealing “a significant security gap
Sure, for context the image in the article captioned
> Jarczak’s code shows that his fork of OrcaSlicer identifies itself as “BambuStudio,” but mostly just by saying that out loud and hoping Bambu’s systems don’t ask any questions. Image: Bambu
is the “security gap” claimed by Bambu
He just copied their AGPL licensed code, they send the DMCA notice because he didn’t change their user agent string.
> Why is everyone mad at them?
Because they're unjustifiably being huge pricks [0] and violating an OSS license that covers the software that they've built their commercial product on top of. [1]
[0] <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIbpQtoz6hs>
[1] <https://sfconservancy.org/news/2026/may/18/bambu-studio-3d-p...>