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Louis Rossmann offers to pay legal fees for a threatened OrcaSlicer developer

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Re: Louis Rossmann offers to pay legal fees for a threatened OrcaSlicer developer

#41

Post by gambiting »

rdiddly wrote: post #31

Can someone explain to me like I'm 5, why you would need to communicate with a cloud service to use a 3D printer?

So obviously it's not necessary at all, but Bambu built their entire brand on ease of use - the app allows you to pick from thousands and thousands of premade models and send them to your printer directly from the app. Judging by the Facebook Bambu groups, most people never bother with installing PC Bambu Studio. And because phones don't necessarily have the raw power to slice the model on device, it's sent to their servers for slicing to fit your printer and filament type.

So it's a nice to have thing, but it could have very easily been optional. Instead they made it so that every print, even ones sent from Bambu Studio, has to go through their servers(unless you enable Lan mode)

Re: Louis Rossmann offers to pay legal fees for a threatened OrcaSlicer developer

#42

Post by dspillett »

Aurornis wrote: post #7

OrcaSlicer supports Bambu printers already. Does anyone have any better sources for what this other fork supposedly did? EDIT: I’m not going to sit through another angry Louis Rossmann video, but from what I can see someone tried to make a branch of OrcaSlicer that interacted directly with Bambu’s private cloud APIs to impersonate Bambu Studio. I don’t agree with the legal threats but this case is about connecting to…

> I’m not going to sit through another angry Louis Rossmann video

Try https://youtu.be/0tdZ5Z7nRDY?si=vjnJ90p6ba_Xik9B for a less emotive take on this specific case, and the closely related matter of Bambu's attempt to circumvent some of AGPL's protections.

Re: Louis Rossmann offers to pay legal fees for a threatened OrcaSlicer developer

#43

Post by rafram »

When was the last time Rossmann had anything nice to say? He seems utterly miserable. I don’t doubt this is an important issue, but when he inserts himself into a dispute, it only gets more overblown and vitriolic on all sides.

(The ridiculous NYC to Austin thing is pretty representative. Complained incessantly about loony liberal New York, moved to Austin, now he complains about Texas. Sorry! Turns out there is no utopia for pathological contrarians.)

Re: Louis Rossmann offers to pay legal fees for a threatened OrcaSlicer developer

#44

Post by gosub100 »

stavros wrote: post #22
cjbgkagh wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there is an element of audience capture. Similar to how ElectroBOOM has to keep electrocuting himself for his audience. It’s a living…

Maybe you know this, but ElectroBOOM doesn't actually electrocute himself, it's just a running gag.

It sure seems real to me. although some of those HV circuits like the jacob's ladder seem way too dangerous.

Re: Louis Rossmann offers to pay legal fees for a threatened OrcaSlicer developer

#45

Post by the_biot »

exabrial wrote: post #26

Louis is one of the most passionate YouTubers you can watch. I don't think he gets it right 100% of the time, but when you are that vulnerable (and what appears to be authentic) you're bound to not make the the right call every once in awhile (as we all do). I support him even though people can pick him apart.

As a matter of fact he's a never-ending source of drama and outrage, all of which are his own opinions. His repair channel isn't even about repair anymore, it's all drama, all the time. I can hardly believe people fall for his shtick anymore.

Re: Louis Rossmann offers to pay legal fees for a threatened OrcaSlicer developer

#46

Post by delecti »

rdiddly wrote: post #31

Can someone explain to me like I'm 5, why you would need to communicate with a cloud service to use a 3D printer?

To steelman their use case, Bambu has marketed themselves as the most approachable way to get into 3D printing. In addition to their low prices, that includes ease of setup, and ease of going from a model on their website to a physical object in your hand. If you're already getting the model from their website (and realistically, the overwhelming majority of 3d prints are downloaded), then having their online software ecosystem handle everything for you just reinforces that approachability.

But realistically, because if they control how you use your machine, they can start skimming profit off of those digital services every time you print something. That's only works if they have control over how you use the machine in your house.

To outward appearances, they seem to be trying to recreate the printer ink/razor blade business model on 3d printers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razor-and-blades_model#Printer...

Re: Louis Rossmann offers to pay legal fees for a threatened OrcaSlicer developer

#47

Post by switchbak »

stavros wrote: post #17
jonpurdy wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very useful comment. I’ve had an A1 Mini for a year now and it has been my favourite purchase in years. Like when I got my first mobile phone, I feel like I’ll have some sort of 3d printer for the rest of my life. Bambu made it super easy and inexpensive for this to happen. I’m completely against bullying and attempts to lock out open source software from using 3d printers directly; if they locked out OrcaSlicer from…

It's not like you have a choice, the printer doesn't work locally unless you enable LAN mode, and then it only works locally. Bambu make you pick either "closed servers" or "the mobile app doesn't work" for no reason. I'll chip in to this developer's legal defense fund because I want to be able to do whatever I want with my printer, and "I can't do what I want with my printer" is a bigger problem for me right now tha…

But we’re geeks, we can run tailscale on the local lan and access it anywhere, no? Obviously that’s not for everyone, but that’s workable for savvy users, no?

Re: Louis Rossmann offers to pay legal fees for a threatened OrcaSlicer developer

#48

Post by the_af »

I have to say the Bambu A1 Mini has been a game changer for me. I wouldn't own a 3D printer otherwise. While it doesn't really "just work" as the hype would have it (I believe this is impossible with current tech), it comes pretty damn close. Probably the printer that does it best.

I didn't want another hobby, fiddling with settings and materials, and generally going down the 3D printing rabbit hole. I just wanted to print stuff for my actual hobbies. And the A1 does this, with little fuss, for which I am forever grateful.

Re: Louis Rossmann offers to pay legal fees for a threatened OrcaSlicer developer

#49

Post by sottol »

nullstyle wrote: post #10
GuB-42 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say Prussa. I am not going to say they are perfect, but I think they have a good balance of ethics, openness, product quality, innovation, availability and price. By that I mean their are the best in none of them, but I don't think of anything better as a combination.

Prusa sat on its haunches for a decade, happy to leave progress on the table as long as their salaries got paid. Bambu actually got non-technical people into the hobby and has always had more bang per buck. Buy a bambu; use Orcaslicer Edit: didn't mean to say "held the industry back"; I would categorize my opinion more along the lines of "were happy to get fat on past offerings" or the like.

My thing with bambu was always that they polished whatever the industry (and hobbyists) had invented and closed it all off, then also innovating on top of that but never giving back unless they _had_ to. Polish and mechanical design are great but corexy kinematics, input-shaping are imo what made the X1 stand out as the fast+good-qual printer when it launched. A lot of what they added on top was then to build a moat.

This may be a controversial take, but imo it would be Bambu to set the industry back by a decade if they "win" and lock up the market. That's clearly their strategy afaict.

Does anyone remember Bambu patenting existing open inventions as their own? I can't seem to find good links anymore (?!) but there's some details here https://www.mdpi.com/2411-5134/8/6/141

Re: Louis Rossmann offers to pay legal fees for a threatened OrcaSlicer developer

#50

Post by xattt »

Aurornis wrote: post #7

OrcaSlicer supports Bambu printers already. Does anyone have any better sources for what this other fork supposedly did? EDIT: I’m not going to sit through another angry Louis Rossmann video, but from what I can see someone tried to make a branch of OrcaSlicer that interacted directly with Bambu’s private cloud APIs to impersonate Bambu Studio. I don’t agree with the legal threats but this case is about connecting to…

Although local LAN control is still unhindered, browsing the filesystem on the printer from the slicer is locked behind cloud mode.

Getting cloud mode means using Bambu Studio. Getting Bambu Studio means one more notch in slowly getting locked into the walled Bambu garden.

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