While I wouldn’t want flakpak going deep into the OS I think the advantage of using them on the desktop is obvious. Developers can release to multiple dists from a single build and end users get updates and versions immediately rather than waiting for the dist to update its packages. Plus the ability to lock the software down with sandboxes.

The tradeoff is disk consumption but it’s not really that big of a deal. Flatpaks are layered so apps can share dependencies. e.g. if the app is GNOME it can share the GNOME runtime with other apps and doesn’t need to ship with its own.

I’ve set my P1S to print through LAN and it works fine. I don’t want or need to use an app to control the printer so I’m not concerned by that loss of functionality. IMO printing via LAN makes more sense anyway for most users. Having to upload some multiple megabyte file to the cloud just to download it back down to a machine you’re sitting beside makes no sense.

I like Bambulabs hardware but I don’t get their obsession with locking down the firmware. Ultimately it’s just a 3d printer that takes an STL and prints it. There is very limited IP in a firmware that needs protection or that couldn’t be figured out by monitoring the I2C or whatever protocol it uses to send instructions to various systems like AMS, camera, printer board etc. Somebody could reverse engineer it already and all this controversy just makes it more likely that someone will.

My bambu AMS doesn’t work with TPU so I don’t think multimaterial has much benefit in this use case. Basically I have to put the tpu on a spool at the back and disconnect the tubes from the AMS.

I do find multimaterial handy for PLA/PETG although AMS can be annoying if a piece of PLA snaps which often happens.