Comment by ChristianJacobs
3 days ago
Bambu showed their true colours last year when they would've eliminated offline access altogether if not for public outrage. You don't own your Bambu printer, you're leasing it at a subsidised premium.
This move does not surprise me at all, and I'm genuinely happy that Louis is willing to shell out money to help those that can't defend themselves.
I'm happy that Bambu finally made Prusa care, but I will not cheer them even if they consistently innovate. It's just sad.
I bought a Prusa several years ago that I had a rollercoaster of feels on. It's reliable, works great, but also cost me $900. For the next 3 years or so I was wondering whether I should have just bought a $250 Bambu and gotten almost same results. Now I'm happy I didn't.
Both friends with Bambu printers bought them because they were cheaper than Prusa, and they wanted "a tool, not a hobby" (which I think is marketing invented to disparage an open source, repairable printer).
Three years later, they have unreliable printers that are difficult to maintain.
I have a five year old Prusa, still working very nicely, and it's still a tool and not itself a hobby.
Prusa are clearly tools: you can fix it, modify it, and still have warranty apply. You can get after-sales parts, and service.
Bambu are appliances. They can work great out of the box, but appliances do not have upgrade paths. You do not upgrade a microwave, you throw it out and get a new one. Or maybe it's more like a fridge, you can limitedly repair some bits, but you cannot wholesale upgrade from V1 to V2.
Anyways bought the core one a few months ago, on kit, and did the whole assembly. The assembly was fun, and the resulting printer has been great. The print fails I had were all easily understandable, entirely due to adhesion issues to a dirty print plate.
I also ordered the indx and am looking forward to capabilities that are not possible with the AMS system. I'm more of an artist though, so I'm looking for interesting and cool ways to make things, not just 3D printing figurines or sculptures etc.
2 replies →
Without looking it up I’m guessing I’ve had my P1S for 3 or more years and I’ve never had a single issue with it, to the point where I wonder what issues your friends have?
And the yet again I got told over and over again that Bambu didn't really mean to, and if they did they learned their lesson, and after all you can still keep them offline. And spending more for a prusa obviously is silly.
I'm really getting too old dealing with morons who didn't learn anything after the same patterns repeating for decades now.
companies don’t learn lessons. they will always push the boundaries of what they can get away with as long as it improves their bottom line
What pattern?
I'm honestly not getting the complaint here. Bamboo Lab forced competitors to step up and actually produce good products. Now that there are many Bamboo Labs competitors you are no longer dependent on Bamboo Labs anymore.
I'd love for this pattern to repeat for eternity.
If anything this is the good ending to the story. The rise and fall of a giant.