The printers are expensive. Not Bambu
I have two simple questions:
- Do you know what the average software developer makes?
- Do you know what the most expensive part bringing software to market is?
I’ll give you a hint. The answer for number 1 and 2 are different.
One more point for being able to install a few $300 windows laptops to use with how much you saved on the printers!
They’ve already tried that method, but a couple computers can’t support 600 kids.
1 Like
2 topics about the same thing mean nothing. As an example, look at the “AI” discussion in several open topics…gets nowhere! Look how many duplicate topics are about other stuff and you will find that it also leads to a brick wall.
Chromebooks are a thing it seems, yeah i get it. but if schools wanted, they could buy some cheap dell computers and stick linux there. They chose chromebooks and to spend that money because it’s easier than wasting time installing an OS in every computer. Look, they could have gotten some cheap i3 printers and instead they bought Bambu printers… Just the cost yikes! Schools make business and so does Bambu Lab.
And, as @Olias said, it’s not a viable market at all. Brings nothing to bambu and what the company is searching, as can be seen every day more and more is money. And chromebook users are basically asking “2 dolla sucky sucky?”
It’s hard i know, but as mentioned already, Orcaslicer can be forked and run on a server if needed. It creates working 3mf files that can be printed. Many users prefer Orca instead of Bambu. It’s a matter of getting someone that can code and ask them to do it… for the kids at school… for free! You’ll see where i am getting then 
2 Likes
Acutally just means someone didn’t use search.
Goodnight.
2 Likes
I guess we are getting a bit carried away… 35 posts! Geez.
Perhaps the website can be an installation in the future, as I can see what you mean when you say, “Bambu doesn’t currently have the resources”.
@Olias The schools also buy printers. Also, where I live at least, students ages 14+ are legally allowed to get jobs, this means that students 14 and above are old enough to get jobs. This means that it IS possible for students NOT to be broke. I would also like it if you stopped assuming that everyone below the age of 18 is broke.
How about this, a one time payment of $5 to use Bambu Studio on the web. Then everyone can use it because it’s not too expensive, but Bambu Lab still gets to make their money.
Now who’s making assumptions? I never said broke. There’s a big difference between not having money and not having discretionary money. Most of the school-aged people I’ve known—including myself back then—would have spent any extra cash on ‘the two fumes’: perfume and car fumes. 
I don’t see a booming market of affluent teens driving revenue here.
Why do I think that? For one, most people here are either high earners or have enough disposable income to deck out serious setups. Just look at the some pictures of workshops posted around here—there’s real investment on display. And second, in the other forums I’m part of, especially gaming rig and simulator communities, teens definitely express high interest in high-end gear. But when the cost of decent gaming setups, flight sims, or just a good NVIDIA card can hit $3K-$7K or more, it’s clear most of them don’t have the discretionary cash to actually buy it.
So, no, not every teenager is ‘poor,’ but most don’t have enough spare cash to move the needle in this market. That’s the point I—and others—have been trying to get across.
Edit: To @Square3D’s point further down. I almost missed the single point of contradiction in your earlier argument and this latest response. Your argument supports Chromebook users, who are targeted because they’re cash-starved. So, asserting in the first part of your argument that some teenagers have discretionary money would suggest they’d spend it on a full notebook, not a Chromebook.
The main point that’s easy to miss—especially if you haven’t yet dealt with paying back loans or balancing budgets—is that businesses run on profit. Public companies are accountable to their shareholders, who expect returns on their investments. Right now, this might seem less relevant, but once you’re in the working world and looking at your own 401K statements, you’ll likely be more interested in quarterly growth than who in your 401K portfolio is funding purely altruistic ventures. It’s just the reality of how companies prioritize their spending. As I stated earlier; don’t hate the player, hate the game. Companies have got to make money to stay in business.
1 Like
Is Bambu a billion dollar company? If they are I wouldn’t see any problem in making a website, but they probably don’t have that kind of money…
But that means also that those 14+ that have already jobs could spare for some time and get a real laptop/pc and even have their own printer… that’s my guess…
Not trying to defend one or the other side, but this is business and if you aren’t aware by all the topics in the forum, money is the thing they are after. They are trying to become the Apple of 3d printers and that is not good since 3d printing was born from the community and later on companies started jumping in.
2 Likes
Exactly, but if Bambu has the money to spare, this could be a beneficial future improvement.
So really the decision is up to them and creating it right now wouldn’t be the best time, but in the future it might make more sense.
1 Like
We only use Flashforge because thats what was available and cheapest when they bought it (about 10 years ago for the Finders and about 5 years ago for the Adventurer 3’s). However, I do happen to know that my school does want to get a couple Bambu Lab machines, and the teacher doesn’t love to slice files and start prints with a USB stick all day long, so I don’t think he would hate the idea of a web based slicer too much. Actually, I’m pretty sure he would be fine with paying for the whole class to get one if it made his life easier.
They already are, ever since Bambu Lab became popular, Prusa has started to go from the Apple of 3d printing to the Blackberry of 3d printing.
I feel that this conversation has concluded as this is going to become a never-ending argument.
1 Like
Pretty much, but this is what happens when you create a topic that has the possibility of starting arguments.
1 Like
I do have a “real” PC, but I still have to go to school and work with a chromebook for 8 hours a day, and when I want to upload a model to MakerWorld during study hall, I can’t because I need a sliced file, which I obviously can’t get on a chromebook.
1 Like