Bambu Lab accused of violating open source principles with cloud-dependent printer controls
By
rubenbe
19d ago· 5 min readenOpinion
100/100
Golden Brown
Bagelometer↗
A five-star bake. Worth schmearing, sharing, saving.
Score100TypeopinionSentimentnegative
Summary
The article criticizes Bambu Lab for allegedly violating the open source social contract by pushing cloud-dependent features and restricting user control over their purchased hardware. The author describes taking technical measures (firewall blocking, firmware freezing, switching to OrcaSlicer) to maintain local control of their P1S printer. The piece argues that Bambu Lab's actions represent a betrayal of the open source community that helped build their ecosystem, and warns against the trend of manufacturers taking away user autonomy through firmware updates and cloud requirements.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledI'm one of those crazy ones who likes to own something they purchased, and not have the company watch everything I do with hardware I paid for.
Bambu Lab could've left the status quo at that, and I wouldn't be writing this blog post. But they didn't.
I blocked the printer from the Internet via my OPNsense Firewall... I had to do that to keep it under my control, instead of Bambu's.
Last year I said I'd probably never recommend another Bambu Lab printer again.
I still use my P1S, but after Bambu Lab started pushing their always-connected cloud solution as the new default:
I blocked the printer from the Internet via my OPNsense Firewa
