I don’t feel like I even have a choice, for ethical reasons. I can’t support anyone bringing more Enshittification and centralized control into the world. And all the unethical things that are coming along with it.
I feel like older companies over in the western world have been the worst offenders. It seemed to me that BL was still in early stages, focused on working hard to innovate and bring in cash by giving us what we want. And I definitely never figured anyone would be crazy enough to try to retroactively start locking down hardware already sold. Now I’m not so confident about that… and I should’ve known better.
For me locking down and isolating will be enough. It’s not like I’ll be selling anything when there’s no need to, but I’m just not in BL’s target market. Oh well.
I paid for the hardware in the first place, for the machine which operates using the standardized G-code. BL software on top can be useful, but in no way it should be mandatory to operate the machine. Let me decide how I use my tool, when I update it and who has access to it.
Current BL proposals are lose-or-lose. Either I lose control or I lose support. And in both cases it just reduces security! Have they ever heard about authorization tokens?
I am switching to LAN mode and will be looking for alternative suppliers. I am already not using the latest firmware because of some bugs and having issues with BL filaments in every batch I order.
I am glad to see that 3D printing community stays vocal and I get to know about these “updates” before my printer gets locked down to BL software.
I’m patient and I would have let this “misunderstanding” slide, but there is no excuse for retroactively changing information and gaslighting customers. You’ve decided to nuke the trust people had in this company - and this time it’s going to last. There are great engineers working at bambu, but the stance to security and privacy, combined with how poorly this situation has been handled broke the camel’s back. Enough is enough.
This is the last printer I bought from Bambu Labs and I certainly will go so far as to change hardware if some open source team releases a replacement board. I don’t think this situation can be salvaged now but it can serve as a warning to other companies.
While talking with live chat the other evening regarding my order ETD status (Which I recently got a shipping label for thankfully) I asked about an update on all of this and they said to watch for an upcoming social media post, maybe they will explain this situation better, walk back this, provide more options or something else.
Lots of half truths and half-baked “solutions” coming from you after a horrible plan was announced. You weren’t “working with” OrcaSlicer, you sent them your plans (very late in the game, just a week ago) they agreed to look at them, then rejected them.
Your “Developer” Mode is not an adequate work around.
Saying “it’s just a beta update” would be fine except that I assume your plan isn’t to release beta updates then routinely revert them. Stating that one doesn’t have to install the update, but then one foregoes ALL future security and feature updates, and, per your current, written TOS, risks you refusing to let me print from my own printer is NOT acceptable.
Forcing your customers to choose between never updating and this kluged capture mode is not acceptable.
Forcing you customers to choose between allowing 3rd party integration and using software like the Handy app, which was included in the price your customers already paid for, is not acceptable.
My son has loved his Bambu printer, and I recently got mine based in part on his recommendation. All this was BEFORE your recent announcement. Unless your plans change, I will not be buying from Bambu in the future, nor recommending Bambu to others.
I’m really thinking about checking it out as well. I was going to get the new BL machine coming out early this year, but with all of these changes so they can try to control all aspects of our printers (maybe not now, but this is the start), I’d rather try one that’s going to be mine. If we let BL get away with this, they will pull more and more control away from the machines we purchased, and other manufacturers will follow suit. The only thing we can do to stop it is move away from BL until they either lose it all or come to their senses.
Honestly, I’m ok with Bambu turning into the Apple of the 3D printing scene to a point.
Closed Source parts, I’m pretty ok with to make it easier for those who don’t care to try and the correct and quality aliexpress parts to repair.
Locked down software, not quite as much. Preferably have an opt out system where you recognize that your issues are not supported and security is more lax than their ecosystem.
Filament, nah thats too far. That’s a complete bottleneck that is as bad or worse than HP printers as at least paper printers dont normally cost $2000
I’m still looking forward to the next gen printer as I’ve been waiting for a larger print bed while still being high quality with the as of now standard Bambu guarantee. K1’s sucked at launch and took months to come back and still never got as reliable as the X1/P1S, K2 looks good now but some reviewers are coming back and starting to have issues with multicolor and print failures.
I knew that Bambu Labs wasn’t an open hardware set of products when shopping and before purchasing. Fine.
I knew that Bambu supported (or at least allowed) the use of 3rd party external software. That was part of my purchasing decision. NOT fine to change it after the fact. And a restricted LAN mode or never updating firmware again are NOT acceptable work arounds. NOT ACCEPTABLE.
Closed filament? Again, not part of the package when I purchased my device, will never be an Acceptable change to an existing, owned printer.
I have internet outages here frequently. During one such outage I decided to switch over to LAN mode so I could keep printing. I could not get my printer and PC to connect until after the internet came back up. I haven’t had another outage yet, so I don’t know whether it will continue to print in LAN mode once it goes down again.
If that happened (and anyone who’s read my older posts knows how much I hate that business model), what I would argue you should worry about is such a company becoming a de facto monopoly in this field. Because then they will start playing vendor lock in and other unethical games (right out of Apple’s playbook).
I wonder what the market share numbers look like.
…
Before I clicked reply I checked if there were any market share numbers out there and the results were not exactly what I expected. My “AI” found this interesting link.
This is for “entry level” printers below $2500 (if I’m interpreting the article accurately, check for yourself if you want to be certain).
Thanks for sharing that data @Lou. I’m very much exploring the QIDI Plus 4 but I may take a look again at Creality.
If anyone would care to suggest which models of Creality are best substitutes for the P1 series, I’d love to hear some opinions. Perhaps start another thread though.
I need to time my move away from Bambu carefully so that when I sell my P1, I don’t end up buying into another ecosystem only to find out they’ve introduced the next-gen model two months later. It’s much easier in the computer motherboard industry, where chipmakers have followed a decades-long practice of publishing product roadmaps.
But with Chinese companies, it seems much easier to keep the public in the dark by not revealing their plans. To me, this is why these companies, as a whole, are considered untrustworthy in the West. Transparency is the best antidote to chicanery, but that’s not how Chinese businesses operate, is it?
The closest thing in price/features are either the Creality K1Max or the Prusa CORE One
K1Max is $800 and 300mm cubed but is overall considered lower quality (all the K1 series)
Prusa CORE One is $1200, a little smaller at 250x220x270mm but is the same or maybe a bit more higher quality.
I have a Prusa MK3s and if it weren’t for consistent bed-adhesion issues (maybe because it’s a bed-slinger) I’d argue that print quality is on par with a P1S, at least at moderate speeds. Apart from assembling it, which wasn’t a problem for me, it was as plug-and-play as my P1S. I’d guess that MK4s is even better so if I was looking for direct replacement for the things I tend to print, that’s where I’d probably go. Also CORE One seems like a good replacement but with no personal experience and so-so reviews, not sure I’d take the plunge, yet.
I also have a Voron (a kit from Formbot) but that thing spends more time disassembled than assembled, seldomly worked properly (tho, the most beautiful Benchy I ever printed was on it - it looks almost as it was injection-mold plastic!), and I’ve no doubt I could get it to work as good as my other printers but I just can’t find the time to tinker it into submission
No direct experience with other brands but my friend has a 3d printing farm and from the ‘cheaper’ models he’s now almost exclusively in Prusa camp - he occasionally gets a random new printer to add it to the stable and see how it works for his business. He introduced me to the BL lineup (and I got my second P1S, second-hand from him) and while it doesn’t work for his setup / workload, he always sang high praises on the reliability (he’s still running 4 X1Cs, as far as I know). What he’ll warn anyone that asks him for advice is to stay away from Creality as far away as possible. I kind of hope that he’d reconsider and get a K2 Plus - as that thing looks like a great replacement for the P1S + AMS combo - and then to hear his opinion as there are really mixed reviews all over the interwebs.
It’s still there, and it still has spelling errors.
7.4 Your Bambu Lab product will automatically search for and download new update packages to provide you with timely update services. These updates are designed to resolve cyber security loopholes and prevent new threats, and it is important to accept and install security related system updates in a timely manner. Due to the importance of these updates, your product may block new print job before the updates is installed, and will immediately provide update notifications to help you understand the related information.
We all know it’s bloody still there…and that’s the totally opposite of what their PR said in the Verge article, and that’s also the reason for additional users mistrust in whatever Bambu says…or does.
