Bambu Lab pushes a “control system” for 3D printers, and boy, did it not go well

Security measure? Boxing out third-party tools? Or something more complex?

See full article...

 

[Aurich]

I mostly agree with you that people are running well ahead of what the situation is, with talk of subscription fees, locking down print farms, whatever. We don't actually know what Bambu intends at this point, and people are getting a bit wild with the speculation then running ahead as if that speculation is fact. I think at the core of this is a lack of trust though, and that's understandable when Bambu is acting like this.

However, I disagree more with this quoted block as it doesn't reflect my personal experience with where the controversy is coming from. I've got an X1c and know half a dozen others, all of whom are livid about this. The situation dragged Jeff Geerling out to make a video about the matter, mostly focused on the lack of trust, and did so on his second channel so I'm not buying any argument that it was just chasing controversy for clout. He's not the only one that has done so. The bambu subreddit was also on fire for several days after the first news of this dropped.

Personally I've locked my X1C into LAN mode and blocked its access to the internet at the router level because of this, despite it being considerably less convenient to use that way.

It's fair to be skeptical of peoples motives, particularly on a topic like this where there's a large number of 3D printer enthusiasts that loathe Bambu. But I don't think this is a situation where it's mainly non-owners stirring the pot, which is how I'm taking what you said above.

Jeff Geerling's video is exactly the kind of take I'm talking about, I'm glad you brought it up. If anyone is curious, it's pretty short.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91kfolYkRNM


He was calm, reasonable, didn't foam at the mouth, didn't make things up. His video was basically "I like their hardware, I like using their printers, I put up with the parts I don't like and recommend them because they're good, but if you start changing the deal after I buy you're gonna make me uncomfortable, and I can't recommend them anymore unless you back off."

Can't argue with that.

I haven't done a thing different with my X1C. Including updating the firmware, not that it's asked me yet. And when it does I will decline to do so, while I see where this is all going.

I have a lot to print right now, I'm running through spools on projects, and I'm not gonna worry at all about it in a practical sense for the time being.

Kevin consulted with me for this article, since I'm pretty much the only person on staff serious about 3D printing. I'm glad we added to the voices. I do think it's important to speak up, or even be passionate. My YouTube recs are crawling with videos about this. I'm not gonna watch them all. But Bamu is definitely hearing it.

 

[Shiunbird]

To all considering Prusa vs Bambu:

I initially bought a MK4 solely because I could pick it up from the factory. Bought the upgrade kit to MK4S, and waiting to upgrade to Core.

Never had to tweak and only lost 2 prints due to my own mistake. As plug and play as it gets.

A childhood friend bought a Bambu with the color option four months ago and its been very frustrating. Lost prints, parts being ejected from the bed hit by the head and two firmware crashes.

The upgrade kits by Prusa are great! You really save money in the long run

 

[tenocticatl]

I've said this in the past: you get less bang for your buck right now with a Prusa machine than with Bambu, but I like that they've made their printers in such a way that they can't screw me over later (I use a MK3S that's owned by my employer, hooked up a Raspberry Pi for remote access. Despite a maintenance regimen that I would describe as "benign neglect" it's been very reliable). I don't mind a bit of jank and tinkering if the alternative is the absolute hellscape that is 2d consumer printers.

I also prefer them out of a vague sense of European patriotism, but that's a minor factor. I guess the USA has Lulzbot?

 

[Uiguy67]

Bambu could do more to quell fears if indeed their intentions are altruistic. Maybe put a statement out along the lines of “if we move to subscription printing, we will refund on return all printers bought to date”

The problem is that unfortunately now days, a company saying “we will not do something” simply no longer sticks as they can simply apologise and put out a PR statement explaining how impossible their situation has become…

 

[randomname19937]

That's the stupidest thing they could have done.
When they released X1C and P1P they had a competitive edge. The promise of hassle-free, high speed, high quality prints would have weighed over the shady EULA. That was the time they could have tried this. Now that there's competition*, pulling off such d**k moves is a market suicide, especially when the target customers are hackers, who are renowned for abhorring vendor lock-in.
Hopefully someone in Bambu will realize where they're heading and turn back.

Having had very good experience with P1S, I was really interested in what new printer Bambu were planning to release - now this interest is more than halved.

* Prusa CORE One, Creality K2 Plus

 

[Zeppos]

I'm not happy they did this…

but I'm happy that if they were gonna do it, that they did it right when I was thinking "maybe I should buy a 3d printer before tariffs hit" and now I'll just stick to the sane world of just letting other people have that hobby and occasionally paying them to print things for me.

I know there are other brands out there but I don't think my interest in the tinkering and tweaking side of shit could be lower and Bambu's models seemed like the lowest-headache system.

Meh, I have an old creality ender 5s1, there is little tweaking needed. Doing the first layer is a bit tricky. But you get the hang of it fast. Just ignore all the youtube recommendations and do it with feeling (use the force!) while printing a spiral. Once you tuned that right it is a matter if hitting the print button and waiting... waiting... waiting very long.

Disasembled the hotend once. I was impressed by the accuracy with wich everything was machined.

Cheers.

 

[migrena]

If it's in the ToS, it will eventually be used. Your only defense is not to sign the line.

If the bad press puts them in the same category as HP, perhaps customer and, more importantly, hacker-customer pressure by bypassing their unwelcome changes will force them to roll back the objectionable diffs.

the problem is knowledgeable people will still buy their product and replace their software with custom one and the rest (most) will not care about product locked in walled garden. so in the end the effect on the actual sales will be minimal. :/

 

[UMineiro]

Was thinking about caving in to the hype about these printers and buying one through grey channel since they do not sell officially to my country.
Good thing this came before I did that. I will leave the bamboos for the Pandas now.

 

[MlautheFilthy]

I recently bought a certain "just works" small printer/AMS combo + a Sovol SV06 Refurb for tinkering...

Guess what's sitting box opened, not even unpacked in my closet...

So what now? If you want multicolor, there is literally nothing as straight forward or economical.

I almost want to sell it at a loss and look into finding a used Prusa Mini or Voron 0.1/0.2 or some other small printer and then look into getting a BoxTurtle AFC or something; but then theres nothing economical or "just works" about at it anymore.

It was kind of supposed to support my tinkering efforts

Maybe just VLAN the A1 Mini and hope someone magicks up Klipper support including the AMS Lite?

 

[Xenocrates]

If the Prusa XL was a better printer it would be super interesting, but everyone who owns one seems to be really down on it.

I mean, it's hardly barn burning fast (at least, since we mostly are printing high detail miniatures and care more about surface than speed), and we haven't yet upgraded to multi head, but our XL has been performing nicely with almost no tinkering (I think we had a clogged nozzle) and preemptively changed from brass to use the V6 compatible Nozzle X that we use standard on all our printers, so that any filament will work.

But it's a solid larger format printer. If you need the size, it's much easier to deal with than a Voron would be.

 

[rek]

If you have an X1 printer and want to be free of this silliness, jailbreak your printer at: [BGCOLOR=rgb(30, 31, 35)]https://github.com/X1Plus/X1Plus[/BGCOLOR] .

Doh! Had I known this was a thing, I'd have paid the extra for an X1 Carbon over the P1S that I got. Hoping the lessons learnt from that jailbreak can be applied to the P1 series in due course. I like the Bambu Studio workflow, but I also like to have options should it get sigh enshittified.

Bambu printers have been a revelation though - makes prior consumer printers (which for the most part were not more than refined RepRaps) look like the cotton gin. That one P1S, through its speed and faultless reliability, immediately cast my three other 3d printers to obsolescence. They were soon dismantled for their extrusions and stepper motors..

 

[Gillian Seed]

I got a Bambu Labs printer for Christmas - bought in Black Friday sale. In part because people like Jeff Geerling and Superfast Matt spoke so highly of them. It's actually still in its box because I'm trying to clear some space for it.

As you can imagine, I am less than impressed.

 

[Hammer_Thyme]

Bambu really schooled Prusa for sitting on their laurels. Nobody was really innovating in the consumer friendly space IMO.. then Joe Prusa got pretty bitter about Bambu eating their lunch at lower Chinese pricing instead of improving. Finally they're starting to catch up a couple years later with the Core One and MK4 (still at higher prices and with less refined input shaping). Their Prusa XL was a train wreck of delay and under-performance sadly.

Prusa needed a good kick in the pants from competition, Bambu gave it to them. We can at least be thankful for that. Creality and the rest of the cloners certainly weren't enough to push Prusa to innovate faster. I'll admit Bambu was absolutely the competitive catalyst the space needed, even if I strongly dislike their current behavior.

I think your analysis is deeply flawed

Bambu hasn't really innovated beyond being "super f**** cheap"

The toolmaker was E3Ds baby that they utterly fumbled, pushing Prusa to redesign the Mk4 to keep the same performance level with mostly non-proprietary components

I understand why to the average consumer Bambu appears to be destroying Prusa, but they don't understand the nuances of the engineering

Personally, Bambu just demonstrated why Prusa is the wiser investment, and that despite all the polish, capitalism gonna capitalise

 

[daddyboomalati]

This will land where nobody will see it, but I need to get it off my chest. I am so glad I purchased a P1S with my employer’s money. It’s a fantastic printer but I haven’t liked Bambu as a company from the start and have held out for Prusa one day making the printer to succeed the Mk3S and Mini I have at home.

Bambu set the standard for 3D printers, so I have to give them credit. The P1S has everything I wanted; always perfect 1st layer, a 5-minute complete hot end change, 5x as fast as my old Prusas, and incredible print quality.

Why I distrust Bambu the company? Because they have the standard garbage Chinese mentality when it comes to their R&D, business practices, and the community. They took Prusaslicer, pissed on the open-source license and rebranded it Bambu. They were caught red-handed downloading Prusa’s Printables website to make their own repository.

At least some of the work that went into Bambu’s success was done by the open-source community which they have used to make into a proprietary, send all your files (and control) to China locked down system that is very obviously gearing up to use the BMW heated-seats-by-subscription model for their hardware.

And before anyone thinks I’m being bigoted in my feelings on Chinese manufacturing and design copying, stealing practices, look up the 100%cloned Ford F-150 built in China sometime in the past two decades.

Fuck Bambu. It didn’t take them long to hand this present over to Prusa. I will pay 30% more for a no-drama machine when I upgrade.

 

[otso]

I know there are other brands out there but I don't think my interest in the tinkering and tweaking side of shit could be lower and Bambu's models seemed like the lowest-headache system.

I’ve had a Prusa printer for 6 years, and it has been print-and-play every single time. Not once have I tinkered or tweaked it. It does not have the speed of a modern printer, and I don’t have an enclosure, but I ensure you it will work right out of the box.

I considered a Bambu printer as my next printer due to the good features/price ratio, but I would not have got it because I would think I would have to tinker more with a Prusa. Now, however, Bambu made it much easier to select my next vendor.

Edit: I want to add that I think it was good Bambu gave Prusa a kick in the ass. Prusa had got too comfortable in their success.

 

[randomname19937]

I think your analysis is deeply flawed

Bambu hasn't really innovated beyond being "super f**** cheap"

Well.... that alone shows that they have innovated. They've developed the components and production process that delivers a very fast, precise and reliable printer for very little money.
I may dislike their recent business moves, but I can't deny that the hardware is just really good.

 

[cyberfunk]

I think your analysis is deeply flawed

Bambu hasn't really innovated beyond being "super f**** cheap”

Until relatively recently Bambu was not a “cheap” option like Creality and friends and it was absolutely a premium product that delivered an ease of use and reliability unmatched at that price.

They absolutely HAVE innovated in both slicer software and hardware in ways that have pushed competition to up their game . Who else has the clever pressure advance auto-cal technique of the A1 series ? They made filament cutters the new standard. The auto bed scanning stuff on the X1 actually works, though I don’t use it much .

They made 3D printing “just work” for many many people . I’ve been printing for a long time and had an original makerbot replicator , the Bambu was absolutely a step up . They made a 3D printer that didn’t make all the mistakes that made others suck in one way or another , and they made it quite fast. Until that time your choice was pay relatively a lot of money for Prusa reliability but aging featureset, buy a Chinese clone that was worse , or pay a LOT more for commercial options . Bambu was successful because they beat Prusa as the new premium choice . The market speaks for itself. They absolutely innovated in a way other Chinese companies did not .

 

[dhughes]

I'm not happy they did this…

but I'm happy that if they were gonna do it, that they did it right when I was thinking "maybe I should buy a 3d printer before tariffs hit" and now I'll just stick to the sane world of just letting other people have that hobby and occasionally paying them to print things for me.

I know there are other brands out there but I don't think my interest in the tinkering and tweaking side of shit could be lower and Bambu's models seemed like the lowest-headache system.

Same. Unfortunately I did buy one a month ago.

 

[the_frakker]

This news sucks. I bought a Bambu A1 in the fall last year and I love it. I don’t mind the tinkering, but I’ve been too busy and frustrated with other brand models that I’ve owned that take too much time and have multiple failed prints. I no longer want to spend the time tinkering like that for this hobby. This A1 “just works” most of the time. It’s been a great nearly-hands-off 3D printer. Looks like my experience might be changing in the near future and I’m not happy about that.

 

[disquiet]

The kind of people who own 3D printers do not seem like the kind of users to be passively corraled into a closed SaS environment.

 

[Psyborgue]

You left out the OPs disinterest in tinkering and tweaking, hence the V3 SE recommendation.

Well, don’t care. My recommendation was in case they decided it was worth it. They also mentioned cost. If we’re talking about the same OP.

No need to upgrade anything either, it prints just fine out of the box, and has auto leveling so it's zero fiddling and it's <$200.

it does not.
https://www.wevolver.com/article/ender-3-bed-leveling

And no offence, but comments like yours is what for a very long time killed all my interest in 3D printing.

Don’t care. Good?

I still don't think 3D printing is quite ready for the true masses, but the V3 SE is getting there. No messing about or reading several days worth of nonsensical jargon on reddit

That sounds like a you problem.

and it's cheap enough that if you have a few things ready to try to print it's worth a go.

Not reliably and consistently. Not with many materials. I wanted to print with wood and TPU, which need a:

I don't even know what a drive extruder is and I intend to never find out,

Then you won’t print with wood. It pushes the material closer to the bed, as opposed to pushing the material through a tube from further away, like with a Bowden extruder.

because I'm just not intersted.

Then why are you here screeching?

I just have stuff I want to print. I don't want to read up on stuff, or engage with a goddamned community or anything.

I can see why.

 

[unconcerned]

Another day; another enshitification

 

[Psyborgue]

PLA autoignition temperature is nearly 400C, and ABS nearly 500C. The only way it's going to catch fire is if you could somehow burn out the windings on one of the stepper motors, and then you have to hope there's enough flammable in that motor for it to spread.

You can flash the firmware remotely and remove any safety cutoffs on extruder temperature. The idea would be to print out a bunch of material and ignite that with the hot end, which can reach those temperatures.

https://www.snapmaker.com/blog/3d-p...re,countermeasures are implemented in advance.

But please, by all means ignore this advice.

 

[itfa]

There are a lot of other good options. Don't put off buying a 3D printer if you want one because of this.

Personally I bet I'm going to keep recommending Bambu, because I don't believe they're stupid and will see what this is costing them. But if I'm wrong I'll find another go-to to recommend.

They're just a company in an ecosystem, it's not like you can't easily print without buying one.

Venture capital firms pushing rent seeking business models are not going to give up maximizing their returns, and bamboo labs has at least 5 venture capital funds barking at them to start bringing in the green.

 

[epid.nerd13]

I hate this happened days after my return window expired for my A1. I was already leery about their closed nature but the price was right and I knew LAN mode got around most of my concerns. Oh boy was I wrong. Never buying a Bambu printer again and my A1, which has always remained in LAN mode, is now on my !privatenetworkspace block rule on my firewall. So frustrating

 

[Psyborgue]

You're going to stay up and monitor an entire multi-day print?

No, but I won’t leave the building because WFH and there’s a fire alarm so if there is a fire I can use an extinguisher.

But by all means do all that by webcam because cloud print is such a fucking fantastic idea.

 

[Ghostmutt]

As is perhaps appropriate for 3D printing, this matter has many layers

Well done sir!

 

[Asecondname]

How do you think Bambu Labs came out of nowhere to offer such an attractively priced product?

Venture capital. And now those investors want to start seeing some return.

This is classic early-stage enshittification.

The PR message reads like they don't understand that their users have seen this dozens of times now. Or you know, that their users are smart enough to understand this.

 

[Fenixgoon]

I'm not happy they did this…

but I'm happy that if they were gonna do it, that they did it right when I was thinking "maybe I should buy a 3d printer before tariffs hit" and now I'll just stick to the sane world of just letting other people have that hobby and occasionally paying them to print things for me.

I know there are other brands out there but I don't think my interest in the tinkering and tweaking side of shit could be lower and Bambu's models seemed like the lowest-headache system.

Yup if this is going to be a trend across all their systems I will stop recommending them and will purchase another brand.

 

[RCook]

I didn't check all 4 pages of comments but, and there is always a but... I bought the PandaTouch from BIQU/BigTree, before they would even ship me the device, they sent an email (below), and I had to send a confirmation back stating that I knew the PandaTouch may stop working in the future and that I still wanted it shipped. That email was sent on 1/24/24 -- a year ago. This was not secret, this was well known that it was possible and likely to happen.

Now I understand that BigTree tried several times to contact Bambu without success so there is something to that. I also know that Bambu said they would be releasing an API which did not go well. The way I understand it is that from Bambu's perspective, the way the PandaTouch was working was via an "exploit" to the MQTT implementation. Bambu knew of this and announced that a future firmware may and would likely close this hole and they did.

Yes I have a P1S and it is excellent, I love the printer because "it just works" and while this comes across as very apologist and on Bambu's side I'm trying to point out that none of this was unknown, they stated this could happen almost a year ago. People should not be so surprised or angry, they didn't lie, they straight up said what they were going to do.

Email from BigTree (1/24/25):

Update From Bambu Lab About Their Future Plans For Firmware:

The Panda Touch uses a wireless communication link to connect to Bambu Lab printers. This communication link is only available on the local network and can only be accessed with the unique access code available on each printer. Bambu Lab has indicated that they are going to add an extra layer of security to this communication link in a future firmware update. When this extra layer is added, it will mean that the Panda Touch may be unable to control some features of the printer such as motor movement, heaters, print speed, and possibly even the ability to start prints. All monitoring capabilities such as being able to receive error messages and current print/printer status will remain. This extra layer of security will also have the same impact on projects such as the XTouch and Home Assistant.

Bambu Lab has indicated that they plan to release an official API in the future which will, once again, offer control functionality of their printers. Bigtreetech has reached out to Bambu Lab to seek approval for the use of this API and, if approval is granted and the API is compatible with the Panda Touch hardware, we will integrate the API into a future Panda Touch update.

Bigtreetech will evaluate each beta firmware release made by Bambu Lab and if we find one that does not support control features for the Panda Touch, we will send an email (or an Aliexpress chat message) to all customers to let them know that a future firmware release may limit the functionality of the Panda Touch. The decision of whether or not to update to that firmware can then be made by you as a customer. Bambu Lab has indicated to us that the firmware on the P1 series is very stable and therefore there are no known bugs that would necessitate the need for a customer to update.

If you are not satisfied with the potential need to remain on a particular firmware version then Bigtreetech will be willing to offer a full refund. The refund process will work as follows:

1.) Bigtreetech will wait one week from the date that the first email requesting action was sent (two days from the date this second email is sent), before shipping your Panda Touch. 2.) If you would like your unit to ship immediately or for it to be canceled, then simply respond to this email using the buttons above or send an email to info@biqu.equipment with your order number letting us know your preference. 3.) If we do not hear from you within the next two days, your unit will be shipped and the $10 discount will be applied if you ordered before the 24th of January 2024. 4.) If you no longer would like to receive the unit and purchase via Aliexpress, please request a full refund via Aliexpress within the next two days. 5.) The warranties on shipped units will not cover any functionality that may be lost due to updating to a Bambu Lab firmware version that is not fully compatible with the Panda Touch. 6.) All product listings will be updated to reflect this before any further units go on sale.

 

[macwhiz]

And those moves just don't make sense. The company isn't stupid. I've watched interviews with their CEO, he's a sharp guy. They're popular because they make good hardware that works, I simply don't buy the narrative that they're trying to flush it all away.

The problem is that the current move doesn't make sense either.

Look, OrcaSlicer and PandaTouch are popular because they address customer needs that Bambu hasn't met. OrcaSlicer has more advanced knobs and much better filament tuning; PandaTouch addresses print farms and the P1's laughable front panel. Even customers who aren't currently using those products value them: should you ever grow to need them, they exist.

Bambu decided to disable them without addressing those customer needs. It's not just some current customers losing functionality; it's current customers losing potential functionality that had value to them... and a company demonstrating it doesn't care about customers' clearly-demonstrated desires.

They could've rolled out improvements to Bambu Studio backporting Orca features like advanced filament tuning before announcing the firmware update. They could've brought out a P2 model with a more modern control panel, and perhaps even a P1-to-P2 upgrade kit. They could've made Bambu Connect a print-farm management tool. Instead, they just yanked the carpet out from under their customers.

Worse, they justified it with "security," but the new solution is hideously insecure and demonstrates they've learned little, if anything, about security since their last hack. Which means it's not about security, it's about controlling how the product is used.

And if that's true, it's perfectly reasonable to wonder why they want that control, and how they might use it... especially if they don't care about customer needs. Yeah, filament lockdowns are a stretch... but we've seen tech companies do worse.

Even worse: they've been making inroads into corporate. R&D departments have been buying Bambu printers instead of Stratasys, leading to the lawsuit. But corporate isn't going to buy a printer that insists on phoning home even in LAN mode—or being shut out of firmware updates or support otherwise. This move makes Bambu an instant no-go for those potential high-value customers.

If this had really been about security, they'd have implemented end-to-end encryption in a way that lets you avoid their cloud altogether. Let the new firmware generate a key; the printer displays a QR code and type-in code. You enter that code into a new Bambu Network Plugin, which lets the plugin connect to the printer and negotiate a new, stronger encryption key pair. Pretty standard stuff.

Of course, doing that wouldn't let you control how people use your product, or mine data about what they're printing for your own purposes.

 

[Matte_gb]

I have not used a Bambu printer, but based on this article their usp is 'it just works', which my Creality most certainly does not.

The thing with 'it just works' is that if a tinkerer unwittingly tweaks the wrong part, it may stop 'just working', leading said tinkerer to look for support.

And herein lies the issue - why should Bambu put time and effort into supporting (or repairing/replacing under warranty) their printer when someone has caused the problem by their fiddling? I would suggest they should not, hence the printer is locked down.

If I was Bambu, I would have put it along the lines of 'if you want to mod the machine, there is Developer mode but be aware you lose support and warranty repairs, and once you enter Developer mode there is no way back to the walled garden'.

Bambu gets to protect its 'it just works' approach for those customers who want it while allowing the itinerant tweakers to go fiddle...

As an aside, I am facing the same issue with my (out of warranty) BMW - I am unable to get the engine remaped because BMW have locked down the ECU. This would be understandable when under warranty, but once out of warranty I should be able to make any mod I want (at my own risk).

I guess this is the way the world is moving.

 

[Golgo1]

I've been following this whole thing, off of Ars, here in our forum, talking to people in Discord, reading comments on Hackaday, watching videos, and......

And printing kick-ass storage solutions, posted on Bluesky
My Hex/star wrenches are nowhere near as fancy as yours, but you've made me start looking into custom making a tray/rack for them

 

[SimonW]

Damn. And I was slowly revving up to buy a fancy Bamboo Carbon. Looks like I'm going to have to wait and see what emerges as a decent alternative. I want something multi-material, and minimal fiddling - I really enjoyed my Creality CR-10 but it was painful, at times

 

[samanime]

It'd probably be hyperbole to say they just killed their business, as Bambu will probably continue to be popular with the casual crowd, as their machines are some of the easiest and cheapest on the market.

But, they seriously hurt their reputation, and thus business, with anyone beyond that level, which, in the 3D printing space, is a very significant number of users.

 

[Dr_EluSivE]

I was kinda thinking i'd buy a bambu someday when my Ender 3v2 got too unreliable, but this as me rethinking that. The ender and Octoprint (a 3rd party controller) work so well together, I don't want to give up that open nature.. Maybe a Prusa then.

 

[jack lecou]

Nah. They fucked up and people are letting them know.

But this constant refrain of enshittification like it's a mantra, the bullshit about LOCKED DOWN FILAMENT IS NEXT etc? That's all coming from the FOSS crowd. And I'm sorry, I want to support the idea of open source, but when you're so constantly extra about it all I honestly don't want anything to do with it. Chill out.

The "refrain" coming from the same crowd might bore you, but that alone doesn't make it wrong. Why is it you think the reaction is actually wrong?

Like, if not a prelude to enshittification, what was this incoherent "security" update actually for? And they've "fucked up", but are they actually fully reversing course, or mostly just backing down only rhetorically, "apologizing for the confusion" etc., while pushing forward with the scheme, perhaps in a slightly modified form?

The latter is what enshittification would predict -- two steps forward, one step back until everyone gets used to the step forward and you ratchet forward again -- but the hypothesis is falsifiable. I just don't think we've seen anything not consistent with it yet.

What are you basing this on though?

Like ... what is it you know that makes you say that?

What? That for profit companies face pressure to extract as much as possible for shareholders?

It's not like BL is somehow immune to that pressure. And they are positioned in a good place -- or at least what they could plausibly estimate to be a good place -- to extract more of the value that they have obviously been providing to their users and the community.

Again, where is this $20 a month idea coming from? For what? What are you talking about exactly?

I didn't say $20/mo. I said "$20/mo or whatever this ends up being". I definitely don't know what this is. But I don't think you know what it is either. All we know right now is that it doesn't make sense, it doesn't look good, and from past experience with "security updates" that don't make sense, it's very reasonable -- prudent, even -- to use some pattern recognition here and infer that it's probably not going anywhere good this time either. At least until we get some really solid evidence to the contrary.

 

[Aurich]

This news sucks. I bought a Bambu A1 in the fall last year and I love it. I don’t mind the tinkering, but I’ve been too busy and frustrated with other brand models that I’ve owned that take too much time and have multiple failed prints. I no longer want to spend the time tinkering like that for this hobby. This A1 “just works” most of the time. It’s been a great nearly-hands-off 3D printer. Looks like my experience might be changing in the near future and I’m not happy about that.

I doubt your experience is going to change.

My advice is just use your printer, enjoy it, and don't worry about it. If I'm wrong and the sky falls, well, I've been wrong before. But your day to day experience 3D printing is completely unaffected right now, there's just no reason to be overly unhappy.

 

[RCook]

It'd probably be hyperbole to say they just killed their business, as Bambu will probably continue to be popular with the casual crowd, as their machines are some of the easiest and cheapest on the market.

But, they seriously hurt their reputation, and thus business, with anyone beyond that level, which, in the 3D printing space, is a very significant number of users.

You'd be surprised. At my 3D printing monthly meetup group the number of Bambu printers that the 'hardcore' non-casuals have is pretty high. There is something to be said for a printer that just prints what you send to it.

3D printing is still very much a 'I am a 3D printer enthusiast' and 'I am a 3D printing enthusiast'. Sometimes they crossover. Going from a Creality Sermoon (total shit) to my P1S moved me into the 'printing' column and I'm now thinking of picking up another printer that also puts me into the 'printer' column as well, a Voron looks very interesting.