Hacker News Reader

I loved the Makezine weekend projects with Bre Pettis (the guy in the video).

It's horrible to see what a fat greedy bastard he has become.

Taking from the OS community, giving nothing back and then even selling out to stratasys, a company that has actively fought DIY and OS 3D printers with its patents for decades.

View on HN

I had a great time with Bre when he was in Vienna at metalab, witnessing him build one of the first 3d-printing-cocktail robots for roboexotica, way back when .. I had no idea things were going to go so far south with him and his dealings, alas. He was genuinely a nice guy, willing to help, and seemed to respect the ethos of the shared/open source community. It was indeed a pity to see him sell out to stratasys - seems he could've handled that situation better. But maybe that was one of the most valuable things he taught, in the end - that you can't always expect people to behave according to one groups ethics when money/fame/fortune is on the line. Alas I've seen it happen a few times around the metalab scene too; its not something that is exclusive to just a few kinds of people.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com