And Prusa continues, so disrespectful 🤮. Flagged so many times for their wrongdoing, yet they persist in trying to redefine open source for marketing purposes. Champions of open-source-washing!
➡️ The OCL isn't an open source license
I wish I could stop writing those posts but apparently most of the media continue to copy their words without doing a quick search.
Btw, their CAD files are just like STEP files, no logic, certainly not a source.
@idavydov Creality and Sovol have shared more stuffs on some of their models but still with issues. RatRig is sharing more too but with a non-commercial license (so not open source). Otherwise Voron through LDO Motors.
To be clear, Prusa doesn't open source, even partially, their printers since MK4. Only some of their soft.
The problem with Prusa is that they damage open source in 3D printing and people get confused. We are losing the advantages of open source.
@bear_lab from what I understand Creality didn't truly shared their latest designs. For sovol fair; but aren't those essentially Voron clones?
So to me prusa seems to be on the level of RatRig (non-commercial) + they share a lot of important slicer code.
Do you know if LDO gives back to Voron design/employ some of the engineers?
I wish Prusa could do more open source. But it seems they're still the largest open source 3D printing contributors by impact. I might be wrong ofc.
@idavydov As I said *some* designs of Creality are open source, the rest is like Prusa today.
I haven't check if credits are there for Sovol but yes heavily inspired which is all fine in open source world if the rules are respected (licenses, credits, sources...).
I think Voron refused to get money per sales and use donations instead. I imagine LDO makes some regularly.
Not sure if Prusa is the biggest contributor, do not forget that the Prusa code is also done by the community. ⤵️
@idavydov Nobody really owns an open source project. The code is for everybody following the rules defined in the license and by the OSI and OSHWA. So Prusa doesn't own PrusaSlicer nor the firmware. Prusa also took a lot from Bambu, OrcaSlicer, Slic3r, Cura, Klipper, Marlin, independent developers and other projects. So we can't really tell if there is a bigger one, that doesn't matter actually.
However, Prusa is the biggest open-source-washing and disrespectful I know in 3D printing today.
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@bear_lab cannot comment on the legal aspect of hardware copyright.
But I would imagine prusa contributed significantly more to bambu studio/orca slicer than the other way around. Full time developers assigned to a project for a decade (!) counts for something.
OCL is definitely misleading and not OSHW. But I think Prusa is still one of the biggest allies of open source 3D printing (especially soft). It's ok to push them, but we should push actively anti FOSS companies like Bambu much more.
@idavydov Actually this is part of my point, there is no manufacturer I can recommend. Neither for their quality nor their level of open source. When someone asking me this question I tell them to keep what they have, repair it and put time and money in learning CAD.
Prusa is everything but allies to open source, they just have no choices with the software because it's a lot more visible than hardware. But be sure they took stuffs from the community on hardware side without credits. ⤵️
@idavydov They also have seriously pushed down in public many open source projects, very disgraceful.
This is part of why I raise those issues, the level of open source, quality, reliability and engineering is quite low in 3D printing and the tech is late. People share an STL or a STEP and think they are open source. Everyone is promoting CoreXY without understanding all the downsides it has. In 2026 we still have printers barely filtrated and burning/melting.
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@idavydov So here my post is to repair the damaged Prusa is causing to open source and educate/share. I have done the same with Bambu, Elegoo and others (not necessarily here, I do not cross post everything).
My post isn't about pushing down Prusa, they do it themselves. They have been flagged many times but keep doing it, it's not my fault if it's getting repeated.
Btw, I own a MK3 modified by my Bear project. I use only genuine parts from them. No plan to buy a Bambu or anything else.
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Greg Saunier
Iakov Davydov