Louis Rossmann offers to pay legal fees for a threatened OrcaSlicer developer • Hacker News Board

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

#311

Post by Forgeties79 » Mon, May 11, 2026, 1:51 PM UTC

stingraycharles wrote: post #278

Forgeties79 wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My point is that I have an issue with his tone and rhetoric, not with the thing he’s advocating. This is often a hand wavy excuse by people who simply don’t agree with a cause and/or think it’s not important, but won’t admit it. If you don’t think what he is advocating for is important just say so. If you do, support him. You can’t possibly believe he’s so out of line that it’s worth prioritizing that opinion over…

To be clear: I really do agree with his message, and I appreciate the tremendous impact he has had in the right to repair, DRM and all these things. So in that sense, I support him. It’s just that his style is really appalling to me. Am I not allowed to criticize his style while at the same time supporting his stance? I think it’s unfair to then imply I must not be admitting that I’m against his cause and using it as…

I don’t doubt that but the issue is you’re doing the work for detractors when you put more emphasis on his an exact approach rather than focusing on the quality of the cause and the fruits of his efforts.

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

#312

Post by aleph_minus_one » Mon, May 11, 2026, 2:27 PM UTC

ornornor wrote: post #287

jchw wrote: post #66

I made the tragic mistake of getting a Bambu printer (an X1C, with AMS even...) right before they gave all of us the middle finger. I now have it offline, running out of date firmware, connected to a special WiFi network that is isolated from the Internet. That upset me, but now I'm pissed. Now I don't even care about their stupid printers. Now I'd like to waste Bambu Lab's time and cause problems for them. And also,…

Speaking about Prusa, my experience has been that they’re very condescending to users. Extremely basic features (like serial printing) are considered “nice to have”. Some tickets have remained open for over 6 years now and ignored by prusa: - https://github.com/prusa3d/Prusa-Firmware-Buddy/issues/189 (still open after 6+ years) - https://github.com/prusa3d/Prusa-Firmware-Buddy/issues/283 (took 3.5 years to acknowledg…

It is well-known that Prusa is rather slow and hesitant to implement new features in their firmware because they really want new features also to work on their very old printers if possible. And Prusa really wants to avoid introducing regressions with new firmware versions (even though they are not perfect regarding this).

Thus, because of this basically promise by Prusa, the pace with which new features become available is much slower.

Prusa is for people who really want their 3D printers supported for a very long time.

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

#313

Post by aleph_minus_one » Mon, May 11, 2026, 2:32 PM UTC

wolvoleo wrote: post #299

kiba wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prusa does this perfectly fine. They're just more expensive.

The price is a huge factor in the commoditisation of 3D printing. The design quality too. A 3D printer looks the part, that is important if you have it on your desk.

> A 3D printer looks the part, that is important if you have it on your desk.

Good design is only very partially objective, it's often an acquired taste. I, for example, find Bambu printers with their "glossy Apple-inspired look" incredibly ugly, and strongly prefer the look of Prusa printers.

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

#314

Post by aleph_minus_one » Mon, May 11, 2026, 2:39 PM UTC

bsder wrote: post #200

jchw wrote: post #66

I made the tragic mistake of getting a Bambu printer (an X1C, with AMS even...) right before they gave all of us the middle finger. I now have it offline, running out of date firmware, connected to a special WiFi network that is isolated from the Internet. That upset me, but now I'm pissed. Now I don't even care about their stupid printers. Now I'd like to waste Bambu Lab's time and cause problems for them. And also,…

> my eyes are on Prusa should I want another printer any time soon for any reason. Have Prusa finally fixed their engineering? Prusa basically sitting inert on the engineering front is what allowed Bambu to leapfrog them. Bambu made real engineering improvements: linear slides, servomotor for feed, accelerometer tuning, etc. Has Prusa finally decided to compete again? A lot of us are willing to give a company more mo…

> Have Prusa finally fixed their engineering? Prusa basically sitting inert on the engineering front is what allowed Bambu to leapfrog them.

This was the time when Prusa produced the MK3... printers. The MK4S was already a huge step forward: in my opinion - privacy topics aside - already better than Bambu's offerings for some applications (even though these applications were possibly not the ones that the masses care(d) about).

The Core One+ and the Core One L that were released after that are really good printers. Also the Prusa XL is a great printer for what it has been designed for if you give it some maintenance love (note however that the Prusa XL was from a time when less people wanted to print filaments that strongly profit from a heated chamber, so the Prusa XL was - in opposite to the Core One and Core One L - not designed with a focus on this).

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

#315

Post by locallost » Mon, May 11, 2026, 2:53 PM UTC

dns_snek wrote: post #306

locallost wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They never said they don't care about consumer right, but that your over the top comments and ad hominem attacks smell more of drama than of consumer rights. I hope I never produce the words "return to mindless consuming" just because someone dared to criticize my idol. Ditto for "when you care so little about consumer rights". Pretentiousness is not a virtue.

> They never said they don't care about consumer right They didn't need to. Describing it as "just" drama means that you find the subject matter performative and unwarranted, that's what makes something "just drama" . > I hope I never produce the words "return to mindless consuming" just because someone dared to criticize my idol I invoked "mindless consumption" because of how ridiculously dismissive they were acting…

It would be difficult to judge me as being upset because of your criticism since I've never responded to your criticism before.

And for not needing to say it: actually yes it is needed. Nobody said consumer rights are performative, it was said that Rossmann is performative and trying to generate drama and clicks. Even if not true, it's a valid opinion that doesn't make anyone a mindless consumer, quite the opposite. But regardless, those are not the same things, unless you see Rossmann (and possibly yourself) as the gatekeeper of this issue.

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

#316

Post by vablings » Mon, May 11, 2026, 4:13 PM UTC

wolvoleo wrote: post #297

kllrnohj wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Bambu totally delivers there. They really commoditised 3D printing and brought the price down. Prusa's MK3S delivered consistently good, zero fuss, straight out of the box prints with auto bed leveling for $999 before Bambu labs even existed at all. Bambu brought Core XY & multi-filament to the "mainstream" (for however mainstream 3D printing is at all), absolutely, but if you just wanted a 3D printer that consiste…

The MK3S still looks like a kid's science project. The Bambu A1 is much more polished and it costs 1/3 of the price. That price alone is a huge factor in commoditisation. I never considered a prusa for that reason alone.

Prusa is still doing silly things like having 3d printed component manufacturing. I get that they really want the aesthetic and they do make very good products but for a consumer a Bambu printer is just outright a better choice

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

#317

Post by vablings » Mon, May 11, 2026, 4:20 PM UTC

xattt wrote: post #263

fileoffset wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

doesn't the bambu have a built in FTP server?

Well now, this is a nice surprise. I had no idea, as it’s not very obvious.

There is FTP server, you can stream the camera feed and also there is mqtt for notifcations when a print stops/alarms out

The local only mode is very good, it's not first class but for people who care its functional as all hell

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

#318

Post by ssl-3 » Mon, May 11, 2026, 4:35 PM UTC

freeopinion wrote: post #285

ssl-3 wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. I think I can explain the advantage of that. With an Internet connection to their clown, a Bambu Labs printer doesn't require a person to deal with computers in the traditional sense. Like, at all. The printer can be over there on the table, and a person can use it while sitting on their sofa with the cell phone that's in their hand. There's nothing else required for this to happen. They can browse models, cust…

The convenience of wifi printing is obvious. That doesn't explain why you don't allow USB printing. I'm not suggesting that they should remove wifi printing. I'm questioning why they removed USB printing. A person may appreciate the utility of this apparent simplicity just fine and still need a different solution for any of a variety of reasons. That doesn't make them weird. You specifically highlight printing from a…

For USB to a computer, specifically: Lots of folks just don't care. It's not on their radar.

Historically, lots of relatively popular printers have had pretty iffy support for that -- with a USB B port that ties directly into the 5v bus inside the printer alongside the printer's own power supply and this arrangement causing weird stuff to happen.

The Creality CR-10 is afflicted in this way, for example: It seems like a no-brainer to use a USB cable to drive it with Octoprint or Klipper using a Pi or something, or use it with a nearby PC, but things can turn stupid. There's a generalized note about this in Klipper's FAQ: https://www.klipper3d.org/FAQ.html

Now, that said: I'd rather have a USB device-mode port that works properly; barring that, it'd be better to have one that can be made to work well-enough than to have none at all. I'd also like to have serial data (both at RS-232 big-boy volts and TTL), and a real Ethernet port. I want an EPO input so a person can smash a big button when things go wrong, and an EPO output so the printer can shut stuff off on its own when it decides that things have gone wrong.

My connectivity desires don't align very well with what most people want out of their 3D-printing appliance, but they're real desires just the same...and I don't expect them to be fulfilled.

Anyway, it seems that Bambu Labs printers work fine, locally, over wifi. That's apparently a built-in function that can work with things like Orcaslicer. When it simply acts as a printer on a LAN, then I don't really need USB unless I'm just being pedantic today.

And as previously-discussed, Bambu Labs printers also have a clown-based mode that does clown-based stuff.

They don't do both modes simultaneously, but meh. So what? How many brains should one lowly 3D printer have to listen to concurrently?

---

Anyway, the plugin under contention here seems to use the company's clown services to manage the printer instead of directly controlling it over the LAN.

And while I certainly cherish all efforts to enforce and enhance our ability to use the hardware we own in any way that we choose, this mentality doesn't extend to use of services that are provided by others.

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

#319

Post by kamranjon » Mon, May 11, 2026, 4:53 PM UTC

starkparker wrote: post #151

kamranjon wrote: post #120

Does anyone know if there is another printer manufacturer that has an equivalent to the Bambu A1S with it's custom AMS system. I don't think people realize how good that printer and AMS system is (the AMS system for the X1C pales in comparison), and I'd love to support another company, but haven't really seen another bed slinger with the simple center-rotating AMS style system seen on the A1S AMS. For context I run a…

I don't know what the A1S is (did you mean the A1 or the P1S?) but the Snapmaker U1 is on my wishlist. More expensive than either but eliminates the AMS waste by using multiple toolheads. Open firmware, most of Bambu's convenience features.

Sorry I meant the A1-Mini - but the regular A1 uses the same, superior AMS system as the mini from what I can tell.

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

#320

Post by nirav72 » Mon, May 11, 2026, 4:57 PM UTC

jchw wrote: post #127

bdcravens wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may not have been a feature then, but you can run updated firmware and still keep it offline by using Developer Mode. https://wiki.bambulab.com/en/knowledge-sharing/enable-develo...

I don't trust it anymore. I'm using LAN mode today, I have little incentive to update. If I update to anything, it will certainly be third-party modified firmware.

I'm running my P2S in LAN mode. But I also blocked it on my router from connecting outward. Sure I can no longer use the mobile app. But BamBuddy solved that for me. It has a web UI that is mobile browser friendly.