[lutusp]

> ... you seem to just assume that a Prusa requires "tinkering".

I would have said "allows tinkering." Many Prusa buyers expect to be able to improve things by tinkering. It's more a philosophy than a necessity.

There was a time when one's ability to modify a product was a "good thing". When the Apple II came out in 1977, I bought one, and within weeks of tinkering, its designers wouldn't have recognized it. Same idea.

By tinkering I made my Apple II drive a printer, useful for me, but a change the Apple people tried to keep from the non-tinkering public.

It might be genetic, but I've learned to hate closed platforms.

[sho_hn]

Thanks for making this point, which is very and strangely underrepresented on Hacker News.

I've been made fun of for decades for being a Linux user with slogans like "I want to use my PC, not work on my PC". Guess what, thanks to what I learned and the network it got me I have a nicer occupation than any of them and got to participate in a few projects that changed the world a little. You should seek out experiences that build you, not disparage them.

What makes Prusa so great is that you don't have to "make the 3D printer your hobby", but you definitely can. I can think of few products that balance this so well.

I've just started writing these in the hopes of reaching that 15 yo with potential, not an army of MacBook-wielding TypeScript slingers.