I’ve been noticing an unsettling trend in the 3D printing world: more and more printer manufacturers are locking down their devices with proprietary firmware, cloud-based software, and other anti-consumer restrictions. Despite this, they still receive glowing reviews, even from tech-savvy communities.
Back in the day, 3D printing was all about open-source hardware, modding, and user control. Now, it feels like we’re heading towards the same path as smartphones and other consumer tech—walled gardens, forced online accounts, and limited third-party compatibility. Some companies even prevent users from using alternative slicers or modifying firmware without jumping through hoops.
My question is: Has 3D printing gone too mainstream? Are newer users simply unaware (or uninterested) in the dangers of locked-down ecosystems? Have we lost the awareness of FOSS (Free and Open-Source Software) and user freedom that once defined this space?
I’d love to hear thoughts from the community. Do you think this is just a phase, or are we stuck on this trajectory? What can we do to push back against enshitification before it’s too late?
(Transparency Note: I wrote this text myself, but since English is not my first language, I used LLM to refine some formulations. The core content and ideas are entirely my own.)
Free systems were expensive, hard to use, and had worse finish
Bambu came, made a better [proprietary] product
People obviously bought it
Then other manufacturers saw that they could sell proprietary products just as well and jumped into the bandwagon
I love DIY.
At home, I run and build DIY printers but you can’t deploy them in a business/production. Why? As soon as there is a printer that isn’t it just works with easy (and documented) maintance procedures the business needs to hire not only a worker but a worker who knows 3D printers. That’s bad.
Printers like the Sovol SV08 and Biqu AMS (still not launched) aren’t just there yet.
Combined with the BambuLab pricing on the A1 mini and P1S it is pretty difficult to buy FOSS.
Prusa is close with the Core 1 but they don’t have an good AMS package for their printers (their MMU lacks a enclosure/easy to deploy setup). They propably know it but don’t have the answer avaible.
Equally on the econmics side it is difficult: The BambuLab P1S killed the (FOSS) market.
If I compare a 1150€ BambuLab X1C against the 1350€ Prusa Core One I would likley prefer the Prusa product/ecosystem. With the P1S it suddently is 700€ compared to 1350€ for a machine that will produce the exact same parts with a near identical cycletime, uptime and opperating/maintance cost. The decission in favor of BambuLab is easy.
This. The proprietary 3d printers arent the “enshitification” of 3d printers, they’re what’s finally going to make them go “mainstream”.
Tech people need to remember how deep into these hobbies we really are, especially compared to “normies”.
Its like with computers, people go “oh well you can get a better bang for your buck on your memory by not going with apple!”. Which sounds great and everything until you remember that people don’t know what memory is or what it does, let alone how to buy new memory, or how to disassemble a computer, or where the memory goes, or even why more memory can be good for you.
I compare it to fabric crafts because I don’t know shit about them. I know (well, think) fabric is sold in bolts and that’s about it. Hell I don’t even know how much a bolt is, and we haven’t even gotten to the different types of fabrics or ways to utilize them.
The vast majority of people don’t want a 3d printer hobby, they just want to 3d print stuff. And the Bambu printers are as close to that as I’ve seen so far.
Exactly, I like to design things and be able to manufacture them at home. I have absolutely no interest in thinkering with hardware (especially dangerous one like a 3D printer)
Incoming fabric nerd. Bolts are like the spool when you buy filament, they come in different styles, but its typically just a bit of cardboard the fabric is wrapped around for storage. Fabric is typically sold by the linear yard, and if you buy a full bolt, they tell you how many yards of fabric it has on it. Common sizes are 12yd bolts, 24yd bolts, and 30yd bolts.
False dichotomy. There are plenty of printers that are pro-sumer and also have great documentation and are easy to use and maintain.
Name one that is competitive to the BambuLab P1S combo.
Keep in mind that the operator is an average Joe, who knows nothing about 3D-printers, with minimal training on the job to do the maintenance.
Competitive (explicitly) includes cost: If I need to pay $2k for a printer that works just as well as an $800 option it is not feasible (for a business) to spend this much more.
I could but I’m going to assume that you already know and will simply disagree.
Tell me.
Looked last week into it and concluded that BamubLab is still the best option.
Runner up was Creality. They are equally proprietary these days.
How is Creality equally proprietary? I can put mainsail or fluidd on the machine and use any slicer I so choose.
So your suggestion would have been the Creality K2 or K1C?
K1C is open sourced as far as I can tell. But I am not sure what you are asking here?
Someone has created a custom firmware for the X1C, but that’s pretty much it.
K2 isn’t open sourced, but it can still be rooted and you can use Fluidd or mainsail.
So Creality sucks for not open sourcing the k2 firmware, but it’s not the same level of shittiness as Bambu Lab
Open source is a major boon for process automation in a print farm. I also wouldn’t trust ANY cloud platform with anything remotely sensitive, like product development prototypes.