I hate that everything now is a subscription service instead of buying it and do whatever you want.
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Fuck HP.
Source: my dad worked at HP so most of my computers and printers growing up were HP.
it was an amazing company that did legendary, pioneering research and development and made outstanding research tools. the HP of today is the result of 50 years of mergers, acquisitions, conglomeration, and violent shittification.
The HP you mention still exists today as Hewlett-Packard Enterprises, a separate company from HP Inc, which is the consumer-facing brand. It’s very similar to what Motorola did in splitting into enterprise and consumer companies.
Fun fact! Motorola started out as a company making record players specifically for cars. The big name in record players at the time was Victrola, and since they were making them for motorcars they called themselves MotoRola.
I didn’t know that! Having vinyl in the car tho… hmmm… seemed to work out just fine for them though.
Even more fun! In-car record players were made upside-down so that the weight of the record held it against the needle. These are all of my record player facts.
I’m fairly sure that HP Enterprises includes their IT outsourcing arm and anybody who’s had experience with them will confirm how shit they are too.
So they have all these printers connected to their servers I guess. Nice. Not a security risk at all.
Best printer I’ve owned has been Brother. But hp is always at the top of reviews, because hp pays them off I guess.
I switched to one of the Epson EcoTanks after the HP Ink got super expensive (Over $150 to replace all 4 cartridges). Printer was $$$ but the ink in bottles ($15 a pop, Costco sells them all in a pack for $40) is cheap enough that for the in-frequent printing we do at home (My partner uses it more than me for making buttons and stuff)
But all printers have page counters, even the ecotanks…
Do tell, I’m curious to learn more. Does it really matter if it knows how many pages you’ve printed? It’s not going to magically tell you you can’t print anymore when you can see that there’s the link in there
Just go to Staples!
This should be illegal, hell I have a TP-Link router and it’s got a subscription model for the features, that a decade ago were basic features of a router that you’re spending hundreds of dollars on. Unless we make it unpopular from a media/social standpoint, they’ll keep it up. Too make it worse, the router won’t even allow you to manually choose your own channels, you have to let it decide for you. Even if you have an IT background and can decipher the better channel, it decides to choose heavily trafficked channels on all bands. Let me make me own mistakes and learn, I don’t want to be forced like an invalid in a nursing home.
This is generally for a business lease contract with HP. I’ve never seen this done to a printer the person buys outright, only for contracted leased “pay-per-use” printers.
Yeah. It happened to me too. And they wouldn’t let me use the full ink cartridge I had because it was tied to the subscription. I had to go buy a completely separate ink cartridge and disconnect some other thing to print a stupid form. Fuck HP
HP does an ink subscription thing. They will try to trick you into it, too, so I’m sure lots of people sign up without realizing just by trying to use their printer software. Anyway, that ink stops working if you stop paying.
Yes. Co-worker got a super cheap printer, and then tried to cancel the ink subscription. turns out he couldn’t just buy ink from them, and his printer was useless.
They come with a cartridge and “six months free ink” if you register.
But if you register and then six months later realize you never use it and you cancel…
They lock the cartridge
Yeah I looked into it, some models require the HP+ subscription to work. That’s only on some of their loss leader models but still misleading, so that’s still shitty
Yeah no thanks on ink subscription. Also, my printer still works great… but HP forgot how to write software apparently so now I use a 3rd party android print app. Ugh. I’m kind of fed up with the HP experience lately.
HP Printers is definitely one of the worst printers right now; I hate you need a account to use your HP printers
HP consumer stuff is crap.
Hp business/enterprise stuff is passable. HP is also fairly good when it comes to warranty work.
We’ve got a bunch of places with HP printers. Only one out of about 100 has been a complete lemon. In the past few years.
Fuji and Lexmark business ones are good as well.
You can still run the old software without account, as long as you never upgrade. Some third party file hosters keep it around. We got an HP at work and I refuse to give them even my business email.
Can you homebrew a printer? Maybe fake responses to phone-homes?
You probably can
Every time I think printers can’t get any worse, they get worse.
What’s next? are they going to have to scan your anus to confirm that it’s actually you printing things? I shouldn’t give them ideas.
By the way, I’m sure there’s a way to get into the firmware of the printer to disconnect it from that centralized service.
If they could get away with it, they would have made paper that only works on their printer, and it would be more expensive than normal paper but you have to use it.
Dymo has done that a year ago.
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Please drink verification can to continue
What’s next?
Printed ads.
I would think it plays an ad on the screen and you have to touch it to start so it knows you’re there and doesn’t print until the ad is finished.
I can picture it, if you don’t want ads printed at the bottom of every page you have to subscribe.
A whole other brown ring of quality
What’s next?
The firmware will ask for a tip every 10 pages.
Please drink a verification can
“PLAYER ATTEMPTING TO STEAL ONLINE PLAY!!!”
mom just walked in the room
Why not just not allow it to connect to any internet and use wired printing?
Or get the brother printer while they’re still good.
Okay so I see all this talk about ducky printers but if I want one that’s not trying to guck me over which would that be?
Second the recommendation for a Brother. I’ve rarely had problems with them. Above all do NOT buy an HP printer because they come with every form of nickel-and-dime known to mankind.
Alternatively, for the once in a blue moon that the average person needs to actually print things in the modern day, bring your local library a fiver and use their printer. This is the way I do things, because I rarely ever need to print a document. When I do, it’s a ten minute drive and a five dollar or less cost and then I don’t have to bother with owning a printer.
But in general, Brother is a good brand, and a laser printer will be less hassle and easier to manage than an inkjet, but will have a bit higher purchase cost.
Yes on the Libraries! Libraries are often incredibly cheap for printing, and most of them have an online uploading tool so you can print things from your home computer or phone without any hassle. Plus, at least at the library I work at, we have incredibly high quality printers and your docs / photos will come out a lot better than how they would if you were at home, as well as a scanner that can give you a 600dpi TIFF file
Just please try not to hand us a twenty for something that costs 1/100th of that - we often don’t have enough small bills to make change. (Or do and put it on your account for later, if that’s an offered option, or better yet donate the remainder 😉)
In Germany there are a lot of stores that let you use their printer for 10ct per page. Is this not the case in the US (or wherever you live)?
Most businesses in the US have a hard rule against connecting any outside hardware to the network, for security purposes. If you bring them a USB drive you will be asked to leave. If you can get whatever you need printed into a company email, you might stand a chance, but it would frequently require you having a personal connection to someone in the company willing to print your document for you, and depending on the document it will often not be appropriate for business email. American businesses are not really set up to be print shops and most of them would likely not help you unless you go somewhere like a Fedex-Kinkos that IS explicitly a print shop.
Libraries, however, will always have a printer you can use. It just costs, usually a negligible amount per page (10-50 cents depending on the particular library), but they’ve got no issues with you showing up with a USB drive and printing off of it, or logging into your own document storage (email, onedrive, etc) to print from there, because the computers are intended for public use.
FedEx and Staples have document printers for less than 10 cents a page. This is what I’ve been doing for years now, when someone won’t just take a PDF straight up.
Go to the library next time and see if they’ll let you do it for free. They may very well.
A lot of my printing happens when parents visit. They love to print everything. I’m much more likely to use the scanner on my Brother printer than actually print.
Brother ist the way to go. Also OK for Linux in my experience
The new brothers also work fine with chrome os.
I just got around to setting up my Brother MFC-2750DW in OpenSUSE Tumbleweed. I was prepared for a long process, but Brother publish Linux drivers for it and the whole setup took about 5 minutes. Works perfectly over wifi. Easiest Linux printer setup I’ve ever done. And it’s happy with third-party cartridges too.
From my experience, printer support on Linux is often better than on Windows because all the drivers are included in the kernel and you don’t have to go driver hunting on obscure websites.
Most hp models are fine, I have a laser jet I swear by.
Brother printers are fantastic. They cost a but more upfront but actually work
They’re incredibly reliable. I’ve had the same Brother laser printer for a good 15 years now. Possibly longer. Old enough that there’s no wifi or bluetooth options, but it’s a network printer because it has ethernet.
I made my old brother a wifi printer with the help of a raspberry pi.
Additional hot take: get a laser printer for your normal documents and just get photos printed somewhere else. The money you’d spend buying 4x6 photos on someone else’s ink and paper would probably be less than you’ll pay for color ink unless you’re an absolute photo printing maniac. And a laser printer toner cartridge will last you like 1,000+ pages.
This is the way to do it. Getting your photos printed by somebody else will be tons cheaper AND give you better results.
Agreed, my wife and I got a Brother laser printer about 3 years ago and I still haven’t had to change the toner. It’s been telling me the toner is low for months but still keeps going strong. Granted we don’t print a TON, but we print enough that the initial cost of a laser printer made sense.
Second this. Bought a Dell one 10 years ago and it’s still working like a charm! Got me through all of Uni Ani besides the finicky diva driver it’s just amazing!
Yep, I bought a Brother laser printer for $120 a few years ago. I don’t use it super often, but it’s been reliable and easy to use whenever I need it. I’ve never had to replace the toner. It just works.
Is it good for someone who constantly needs to print documents
As long as you don’t need color a laser printer is way better for printing documents.
I love my color laser. (Again, props to Brother). It takes off-brand toner with no fuss and hasn’t failed to print yet.
I don’t know that I would print photos with it, but it’s more than sufficient for everyday documents and even game manuals.
I printed a ton of documents in university with a black and white brother laser printer. All my notes were always printed, for example.
Still have it over a decade later.
This is just anecdotal, but I work in IT and I can’t recall a brother printer ever giving me a headache. HP is obviously the worst.
makes me wonder, how are they still in business doing that?
HP used to make rock solid laser printers back in the late 90s and 00s. Shame what they turned into.
HP is obviously the worst.
HP is special kind of printers shitcompany. They probably spent years on doing market research to understand what people NOT want, so they can do exactly that. 😂
I recently had an HP printer to set up for a client (IT as well), and it only had USB 2.0 and Ethernet interfaces. The printer needed an internet connection and activation online before it would even let you print over USB, and of course the Ethernet port was dead and wouldn’t connect, so now it’s just a shitty white brick with HP stamped on it. At least they were able to return but how does that make sense in practice?
The best. Color laser is pricey but not many people would need that.
A laser printer is best no matter if you print a lot or a little.
Brother will generally be an excellent choice. While HP will generally be probably the worst choice you can make.
Edit:
Just to be clear, laser is better if you print a little, because the laser cartridge doesn’t dry, and can last a decade. While even if you don’t print a lot, you will need to replace ink cartridges regularly, because they dry out.
If you print a lot, the laser printer is both more reliable, faster and cheaper to use.
Needed something to print the occasional document for bureaucracy stuff, and I also got a Brother printer a while ago. Used, laser (very important for good value imo), 100 bucks. An older model, black-and-white but with wifi support. Didn’t need to register my license, create a cloud account or whatever other shit companies come up with these days, I could just turn it on and it worked.
What the fuck is wrong with people? It’s been common knowledge that hp is trash for decades now. The whole idea of capitalism is that the bad products fail when customers go to the competitors who do a better job, but hp is not a monopoly and there are better competitors that exist, but people keep in buying HP because frankly, they are too fucking stupid. Capitalism is a lie because consumers are too stupid to pick the best products.
Most people just buy a printer, they’re not doing research on the subject. And if they’re not using computers day to day, or for work, they’re even less likely to know what shit hp is up to.
There was a time when Hewlet Packard products were the best, them it became HP and…
My hp laptop works fine, but yeah hp printers are terrible. They are very slow to print, and the ink was quite expensive.
The average person is not invested into printers and just needs a printer to occasionally print something. It’s not something they know a lot about and in the store they see a cheap printer from a well known brand that gave them good experiences with other products. It makes total sense for them to buy it. I’m sure they will know what products/brands to avoid in other areas that are unknown to you.
To add to yours, when the person who isn’t up on printers goes to a store like walmart that has 4 different HP models on the shelf ranging from $40 to $90, one cannon for $80, and one brother for $120, they will be much more apt to get the HP because they just don’t know.
If you only print something once every couple of months I only need a cheap printer and dont care if the ink is a bit more expensice since I never use it. Though I admit my blood pressure always rises trying to get the thing to work
“You’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy”
I guess this sentence is already became the reality in some countries if you can’t even buy a god damn printer without it locking you out.
Terminal capitalism looks a lot like communism.
I have absolutely no idea why anyone buys inkjet printers or cartridge razors. There are perfectly good alternatives that don’t try and force you into a subscription model.
Anyone find a source or proof on this having happened?
It’s a printer, and for fucks sake, BMW is locking you out of certain features of their cars if you don’t pay per month.
Telsa cars will drive themselves out of your house if you miss a payment.
Ford’s patent application mentions the possibility of payment plans for financially struggling drivers and exceptions for when a person is hospitalized or out of the country.
This is some dystopian shit right here.
Ford’s patent document also mentioned playing annoying audio meant to bother drivers dodging payments.
The patent filing also clarified that late payments might result in a driver given partial access to their vehicle during the week so they can earn money for financing, Insider reports.
Sounds like they want to be in court a lot. There’s no way any of that is safe.
Oh yeah. How long until the vehicle repossesses itself when a child is in the car? The lawsuits would be massive.
Why are they getting patents for stuff like that? I thought patents were for mechanical inventions only, not new money schemes to stop others from doing the same so you’re known for that scheme?
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Same thing happened to my mom’s HP except that they sent her the wrong cartridges so she closed her account. They bricked her printer. I bought her a Brother.
