To answer your question, Orca was forked from Bambu studio with the then endorsement of Bambu labs back at the launch of the X1 in late 2022 early 23. It was up until recently, a “clone with enhancements”. Many of those were features added to Orca that were not brought over from Prusa or Cura along with some Bambu specific enhancements that Bambu did not have. The relationship between the two dev groups has chilled since then.
Put simply, Bambu only engages with open source when required to stay legally compliant with the derivative licenses inherited from Prusa and Cura, which themselves trace back to Sli3er. At the same time, they continue to chip away at the principles behind open source by closing off more interfaces to their ecosystem.
The community has been calling this out since January. Bambu uses open source when it benefits them and locks things down when it doesn’t. That contrast becomes obvious next to Orca, which is built by hobbyists for hobbyists and doesn’t play the selective-access game.
The turning point came in January with the rollout of Bambu Connect, framed as a security measure and quickly debunked. It was viewed for what it was: another step toward a walled garden. For developers the message was simple: follow Bambu’s rules, ask permission, and wait for approval, or you’re shut out. That’s the entire “mother-may-I” dynamic in one move.
For reference, here’s the community reaction and SoftFever’s response to that rollout: