In the past I’ve told folks who “just want to print” that it’s rational to consider Bambu, even though I never would based on their poor interactions with open source, including their assertions that they only need to follow the license terms of the software they used as a basis for their slicer if they feel like it.
I think I’ll stop that now. Here is the latest nonsense from Bambu, trying to wrap user-hostile behavior in nonsense about security. Should this be called “security washing” perhaps?
They aren’t giving people options here other than stay on old firmware and get no more fixes.
Waiting for the video of Kid Rock shooting up a couple of Bambu X1Cs then turning to the camera, flipping off and saying fsck Bambu and fsck Bambu Labs then saying have a nice day.
IMO, The moment someone creates a ‘good’ product and then starts to think it should be proprietary, they offend a lot of potential customers. It will not be long before their designs are duplicated by another CN company and their sales will drop… Gone with the IPOD
Bambu’s “moat” has been a combination of price point and “it just works” experience.
If they had offered the ability to disable the authorization control system on a per-customer basis, I wouldn’t have changed my mind; now, I’ll be compelled to say that while Bambu may have a “just works” experience, they have also been demonstrating a history of removing control from their users, and the purchaser should consider that at best they are renting a printer for an unknown amount of time, and if they want to actually own their printer, they should consider paying outright a bit more for that ownership…
The comparison was with DJI’s drone fencing and how that was recently removed — extrapolate from there if the subject interests you, but it’s a better topic for a political forum.
I think if Bambu had open sourced their firmware and then told the users to police your own networks it would be a closer comparison to what DJI did.
No doubt DJI was getting sick of all the updates to what was and wasn’t fenced off.[imagine a gif of one of those whacky wavy inflatable people]
Yeah. That didn’t convince me that I should ever recommend Bambu.
I understand that it’s axiomatic to attribute ignorance rather than malice, and certainly their attempt at “authentication” demonstrated ignorance. But also there’s clear anti-consumer intent.
Given what they write about the Panda Touch, it is completely transparent that this action is actually intended to try to guard their moat for their higher-price printers with an active display where they have higher margins. They have demonstrated that my gloss of their initial announcement as “security washing” was a rational and correct assessment.
Even in this update, they are telling you “if you use a Panda Touch, we will not support you.”
I find it interesting that they will re-enable the LAN-only type mode where their security/tunnelling/Protection mechanisms will be disabled but they say they will not support users using that mode because:
quote: “Please note that Bambu Lab will not be able to provide customer support for this mode, as the communication protocols are not officially supported.”
So are they adding some things to their control protocols which they want to keep private and proprietary?
And does all of this stem from the fact that they did not put a USB interface on their machines to allow direct slicer to 3D printer or print-server(octoPrint-like)to 3D printer control or ethernet and went all in on wireless?
They totally screwed up on their first implementation will full in-the-clear login credentials IIRC and this showed world+dog they did not know what they were doing in that space. At that point they should have backed off, provided hardware with USB serial and ethernet control and left securing the system to the user. $0.02
Truth being told, I was seriously looking at buying an X1 Carbon with the AMS add on for myself for Christmas. “WAS” being the key word. I’m not a real ‘grand’ maker, In fact I can barely get around my CAD program. I had been working on my heated chamber for a while, and was getting ready to rid myself of my resin printer as well. Narrow it down to an Creality S1 and the X1.
The whole of the 3D printer community has been based on tinkerers, makers, idealists and repairers. The makers of this forum are only a small part of a much larger community of creators that use 3D printing as a part of their craft-work, and if Bamboo thinks creators of this kind are going to buy into proprietary products while there are printers that are quite good or as good, Well I will not be buying one…