Originally published at: HP printer USB port covered with warning sticker in hopes you won't use it | Boing Boing
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Yep, Epson for me.
HP’s blatant lust for money warded me off many years ago.
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Really a shame, as HP used to be the go to for printers, plotters, lab equipment, calculators, …well rotted down now. -sigh- something about a company established by some singular ‘visionaries’ and the heirs simply don’t care for anything but immediate money
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I know they’re not completely without their own shenanigans but I am definitely happy I gave up on HP inkjets for a Brother monochrome laserjet.
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Yea, I had a Brother laser for a really long time. It finally gave up and I replaced it with a Canon with copy/scan.
HP wasn’t even in the running.
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I have a Brother color laser printer. It just works and has never tried to upsell me. In 5 years, I’ve had to change the toner once and replace one plastic part that broke. I’m sure I’d have been extorted but at least three different HP printers in that time as they each in turn committed ritual seppuku after reaching some arbitrary planned obsolescence date.
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Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard wouldn’t recognize this post-Fiorina monster.
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I’d ask how these assholes stay in business, but with the sheer undiluted greed of their business model they probably only need a few dozen customers to turn a profit.
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Brother laserjets are my go to as well, and the models I recommend for everyone needing just b&w printing. Glad to hear their color laserjets are just as solid.
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I hope I can keep my simple monochrome Samsung laser printer running a bit longer. So far it has been faultless and utterly reliable with not so much as a whisper of trying to blackmail me into buying stuff I don’t need or want. Plug it in, press the WPS button; done.
But a like for like replacement isn’t possible, as Samsung sold their printer tentacle to - of all people - HP.
Quick question for people who know more. If I wanted a printer capable of really high quality photo prints, but only on an occasional basis - what’s the best option these days? I’d be wary if any inkjet, even those with tanks, because of wastage and heads getting encruddified. There’s no local print shop that can do jobs, so that’s not an alternative.
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For occasional use? None, really. You’ll end up using an unreasonable, stupendous amount of ink on the damn thing cleaning itself, or replacing the printhead, or both. Or with a printer that is so clogged up that it is easier to replace it.
Find an online service that reliably mails back your prints fast and in proper packaging. Saves a lot of money and frustration.
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Had an old Epson inkjet that would continually clog or expel vast quantities of ink simply because I hadn’t used it in a few weeks. Replaced it with a Canon Pixma 2 years ago, only on my second set of cartridges and it just prints every time even if I haven’t used it for a couple of months. V pleased.
Meanwhile, HP:
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Thanks - that’d probably save a metric pain-in-the-ass load of money as well.
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USB works fine for printing if you’re one person or everyone uses a laptop and can easily move to where the printer is, but for any other use case networked printing is far superior. There is absolutely no reason for this to be connected to any cloud service though. None whatsoever.
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Or just find a local print shop that can do the same.
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Wait, you’re saying that you can’t see the greatest reason of all, that it makes money for HP??
/S
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I’m trying to imagine in which cases that would work well, because when I print something at home, it’s because I want to read or work with it on paper right now. Waiting for it to arrive in the mail just wouldn’t make sense.
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Maybe if it’s big, graphic images?
Photoshop (or similar) will show you excellent quality print previews for professional work, and then you want 100% matches for colour settings on a final print product.
That’s the only one I can think of, though; personally, I only rarely print anything more than text at home.
Given that printing is a solved problem, and there are demanding business customers for both laser and inkjet printing, you’d think you could get a reasonably-priced printer that just works. And guess what, you can. Both Canon and Brother make such things.
But at least twice, someone’s asked me to recommend a printer, and I said “get a Canon inkjet, and under no circumstances anything with a color screen, scanner, or trademarked features”, and then they later complained about all the issues with the $50 HP multi-function printer they went and bought because apparently if you share your experience with someone you’re supposed to drive the point home by, I dunno, setting yourself on fire or something.
So, yeah, boo to the companies making direct-to-landfill shitware, but let’s not pretend consumers aren’t specifically asking for it. Who wants a stupid healthy cow when magic beans are half the price, and magic?
Bah
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OP’s question was in the context of occasionally wanting really high quality photo prints, but not having a print shop anywhere near them.
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