The Man Behind MakerBot on Finding the Stories That Build Your Brand | Hacker News Reader

The Man Behind MakerBot on Finding the Stories That Build Your Brand

firstround.com

21 pointskanamekun6 comments

No story about early Makerbot is complete without mentioning their commitment to open source (which this puff piece deftly avoids). The open source story has been conveniently dropped.

Here's an excerpt from an Bre Pettis interview in 2011:

Does funding change the commitment to open source hardware? The funding doesn’t change our commitment to being open source. Why would we change a winning strategy? Being open is the future of manufacturing, and we’re just at the beginning of the age of sharing. In the future, people will remember businesses that refused to share with their customers and wonder how they could be so backwards.

http://makezine.com/2011/10/06/makes-exclusive-interview-wit...

For those of you that don't know, he means their abandonment of open source that left the 3D printing community that supported them in the beginning in an uproar.

Makerbot is the poster child of ripping off an open source project (reprap), then claiming the IP for itself, without giving back. Bre Pettis is a sellout.

I really, really enjoyed the documentation "Print the Legend" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3557464/ which is available on netflix.

Don't expect to learn anything about 3d printing, but is a great story about startups.

For people totally new to 3D printing world. From my experience with replicator series it is no different from typical RepRap clone, minus closed source everything. You still fight adhesion and delamination, but now you have no way to tweak process. 3D printing is not really ready for consumers yet IMHO.

More like a table saw than a toaster.

Although, that doesn't mean it isn't ready for consumers...the bar lowers by the month to be honest.

Just don't buy Takerbot. Closed source. Best bet is to research RepRap and get help sourcing/building your own.

My personal belief is that what you learn building it is more valuable than the actual end product. Not to mention some of the great people you meet along the way in the forums or in #reprap @freenode

It is a shame Bre lost touch with all of that...and the community that brought him up.

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