The link was to the engineering diagrams for their hardware. Literally open.

This would be Microsoft selling ‘Teams’ and including a dvd with the source.

Just adding. This and all the bad things that will happen if they get the green light, is not how this is done or should be done.

‘But all the waste and ineficciency!’ Hog wash.

From the system that is working? and serves thousands of people what they needed every day of every year.

They have to say it’s horribly broken. Its a lie, but they have to justify why.

There are standards, procurement contracts, entire agency’s to make sure — Make sure what?

March 28, 2025 - Make sure that what will happen, doesn’t.

coda: The trick this cabal is using is simple - take a thing most folk don’t understand. Say it’s broken. Open it. Rob it. Say its fixed. Collect profits and praise, leave town.

I think there’s some semantic confusion with that article. That’s not what I see. There are literally kits for sale on the Prusa Site to convert your old prusa into a new Core. imho, What the ‘RepRap Open Source folks’ mean is literally every part is sourced from already available parts or can be printed. And I think this is where the article is going. The other Open Source -is Open Ecosystem. Where there may be proprietary pieces (the steel cage), but nothing about it is purposefully closed. Prusa published the full electronic and hardware schematics before the machine was shipping. https://www.prusa3d.com/page/open-source-at-prusa-research_236812/ This is also ‘Open’. Both are good. Both have valid rationale. But neither is anything like closed source, closed box, only we can touch it companies models.

well put

• this is what going mainstream looks like. Greedy people see profit and they get in.
• greedy people are often sneaky, and they work to take all the can from open and close it in : Apple, Later Redhat
• there are tons of Open Open printers out there
• Open has a problem - it’s hard to maintain ignorance and get the benefit. It requires work - you can’t just easily trade dollars for someone else’s labor. You have to learn and put things together to really enjoy.
• What can you do?

  • This is hard, almost impossible: Don’t do business with people you suspect or know are cruddy. Even if they say they have what you want.

  • Learn how to build the printer you want. Hire a good person to learn and do it for you.

  • Buy a printer from a company that pledges to do right. Even if it costs more.

just for history - at this time the core one hasn’t been released. they’ve just shown demos at shows.

The left hand giveth, and the right hand taketh away.

My next printer is a Prusa One. Because Prusa. I’ve watched all the videos on ‘why Bamboo’, and the bias in all of them is people who are running or want to run a business/farm. While that’s a good selection for people who actually use the machines, what is different is how they process costs and inconvenience - because its a business, they can pass costs down to their customers, they can just as a couple reviewers said, “just buy another printer and keep moving”.

This is not my use case. I’m looking for a tool for my house/life. It’s more like buying a pedestal table saw, or a complete set of cordless tools, a lawn tractor or a small pickup truck. I’m the end customer. I can’t ‘pass on maintenance costs’. I want a well-made tool that I can happily use for a long long time.

Between the products is not a heck of a lot of difference, they both ooze plastic. Between the two business philosophies, miles and miles. And I can’t say I don’t want to live in a world filled with bad business philosophies, and then give those same people my business, because they have a cheaper sticker.

I don’t buy devices that aren’t mine anymore. And it while it often initially costs more, over life, will cost me less - in money, in time, in aggravation.