4 ms·

Why do people keep buying printers they hate?

19 points by austinallegro 2y ago

austinallegro 2y ago
https://archive.is/bZjYG https://archive.is/bZjYG
ggm 2y ago
The advice of a B&W home laser is on the money. We go months, almost half a year on one toner and the occasional shake to make it think there's more black in there goes on. And the advantage of older models is the lack of stupid cartridge chip DRM. The downside, is you can be trapped (like me) behind Canon UFR II which doesnt exist in Linux, and so the printer is next to impossible to turn into a network unit driven from anything other than the Windows-10 host it USB attaches to, which is also refusing to be a shared printer for <reasons>
- actionfromafar 2y ago
  Just in case someone didn't find it: https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=313512 https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=313512 If you want to do really insane things, you can install WSL in Windows and share the windows printer from within WSL, as a CUPS printer... this should work, if you can add the local Windows printer as a printer inside WSL first. something like this might work: sudo lpadmin -p Your_Printer_Name -E -v usb://Your_Printer_URI -m everywhere
  - ggm 2y ago
    Awesome! thanks. I shall now have something to play with. -G
  - kazinator 2y ago
    Why would you share the "windows printer" when you can just share the "printer". Is it just so your print jobs out of WSL appear in your Windows printer queue and can be managed there?
    - actionfromafar 2y ago
      Nah, just a possible workaround to OPs "which is also refusing to be a shared printer for <reasons>". (Come to think about, may also need network shenanigans for WSL to be visible on the local network?)
- doubled112 2y ago
  Canon provides a UFR II driver for Linux. I’ve run my Canon laser off of a Linux print server before. They even have an ARM build. https://canoncanada.custhelp.com/app/answers/answer_view/a_id/1012242/~/ufr-ii%2Fufrii-lt-printer-driver-for-linux-v6.00 https://canoncanada.custhelp.com/app/answers/answer_view/a_i...
halper 2y ago
A more important question: is there a printer that can be bought for money that is good, lasts long and is made to actually delight the user?
- Arnt 2y ago
  What delights you? Get a B&W Brother laser (or LED, nowadays), it'll be good, last long and… I expect it won't delight you because you want to print in colour, or if you don't want that, people will send you things that you need to print and they presume colour. I replaced my B&W Brother with a colour LED a few years ago, because some documents really need colour. Sigh. MFC-L3770. The colours aren't good but the printer does what I want and without any hassle.
  - rlkf 2y ago
    I have a Brother DCP-9020CDW which I've owned for over a decade and which still keeps humming. A bit expensive with four toners and a drum, but that's color laser for you. I'm very happy with it, and I guess I'd be equally happy with any Brother MFC-LxxxxCDW that's one market now. If one wants an inkjet, I'd go for an Epson EcoTank.
  - heelix 2y ago
    The Brother HLL8350CDW I picked up in 2014 is still rocking along, with cartridges for the color laser being reasonable. My Bride has a brother mfc-l3770cdw, which she has been happy with - that was picked up a few years ago.
- deng 2y ago
  Finally bought one of the Epson EcoTank printers last year (ET-3850 to be precise). Yes, they are more expensive, but I find them a delight to use. Printer comes with a full set of ink and even an extra bottle of black ink, which will probably last me for another year (one bottle lasts for ~7000 pages). Pricing of ink is at least not outrageous, given how long it lasts. Zero problems with clogged print heads or similar, but I also print pretty regularly. We use that thing over the network for the whole family, also has Linux drivers which have worked flawlessly for me.
31337Logic 2y ago
+1 for Brother. After being an HP family for decades, they pretty much forced our hand with recent enschittification of their hardware and service. Discovered and purchased various Brother printers and MFCs for myself and 2 other extended family members. All 3 devices print flawlessly, have a simple UI, can use 3rd party toners (hello!), and you aren't forced to swap out a toner just because the "Change Toner" light turns on. (ie you can remove the toner, shake, replace, and keep printing until it's actually all used up, according to you!) Not to mention, the wired and wireless functions work flawlessly. I'll end with this: these are the first printers where everyone in my family can print from whatever device they're using: Windows, Linux, and Android. Honestly, I didn't even know we were at "this level" when it came to home printing.
- ProllyInfamous 2y ago
  I have both a Brother B&W photocopier and an HP color laser printer — and I love them both. The only reason I can tolerate them (after having-owned dozens of printers over several decades) is because they are themselves over a decade old, each. They never complain about subscription fees nor "genuine" cartridges installed. For each machine, there is a "manual override" feature which allows you to get the most toner out of each cartridge (with minimal quality sacrifice). For the color machine, Amazon toner knock-offs cost about 1/8th (no exaggeration) as OEM-genuines. As I immediately laminate most color print-outs, I am not worried about toner quality issues (i.e. flaking), but so-far have had none.
- euroderf 2y ago
  I've read in another HN thread that Brothers have begun rejecting third-party toner cartridges.
  - 31337Logic 2y ago
    Damn. 3rd party is all I use on them. :-( Memo to self: Don't flash any firmware on my working devices. Ever.
more_corn 2y ago
Because they can’t find a printer company who isn’t hateful.
FiatLuxDave 2y ago
Sometimes because we aren't the one who bought it (again!). A few years back, my sister bought a HP scanner/printer, then moved away and left it to me. She always liked it, but I never did. Then, after my mother died, I needed to scan my mother's death certificate for a legal thing with a short deadline. The printer was out of ink. The UI did not want to allow me to access the scanning feature without replacing the ink (I've since learned that there is a non-obvious workaround for this). So, the scanner wouldn't work without ink, and my mom had just died, and I had to get this thing scanned before 5 pm, and... The scene from Office Space was mild compared to what happened. There were broken pieces all over the room. I left the room like that for a few days, because I just didn't want to deal with it. My sister came to stay with me for a bit after the funeral, and I had to apologize and tell her that I needed to clean up the guest room (where the printer was located). When she saw what had happened, I explained, and she was a bit worried about my mental state. In an attempt to be helpful, so I wouldn't be without a scanner/printer, she bought me a replacement. The exact same fucking model. Her heart was in the right place. I still have it, and I hate it. But I haven't killed it. Yet.
garbawarb 2y ago
All the Brother-is-hassle-free praise is surprising to me. I've had endless network issues with mine.

19 points by austinallegro 2y ago

https://archive.is/bZjYG https://archive.is/bZjYG

ggm 2y ago

The advice of a B&W home laser is on the money. We go months, almost half a year on one toner and the occasional shake to make it think there's more black in there goes on. And the advantage of older models is the lack of stupid cartridge chip DRM. The downside, is you can be trapped (like me) behind Canon UFR II which doesnt exist in Linux, and so the printer is next to impossible to turn into a network unit driven from anything other than the Windows-10 host it USB attaches to, which is also refusing to be a shared printer for <reasons>

actionfromafar 2y ago
Just in case someone didn't find it: https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=313512 https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=313512 If you want to do really insane things, you can install WSL in Windows and share the windows printer from within WSL, as a CUPS printer... this should work, if you can add the local Windows printer as a printer inside WSL first. something like this might work: sudo lpadmin -p Your_Printer_Name -E -v usb://Your_Printer_URI -m everywhere
- ggm 2y ago
  Awesome! thanks. I shall now have something to play with. -G
- kazinator 2y ago
  Why would you share the "windows printer" when you can just share the "printer". Is it just so your print jobs out of WSL appear in your Windows printer queue and can be managed there?
  - actionfromafar 2y ago
    Nah, just a possible workaround to OPs "which is also refusing to be a shared printer for <reasons>". (Come to think about, may also need network shenanigans for WSL to be visible on the local network?)
doubled112 2y ago
Canon provides a UFR II driver for Linux. I’ve run my Canon laser off of a Linux print server before. They even have an ARM build. https://canoncanada.custhelp.com/app/answers/answer_view/a_id/1012242/~/ufr-ii%2Fufrii-lt-printer-driver-for-linux-v6.00 https://canoncanada.custhelp.com/app/answers/answer_view/a_i...

halper 2y ago

A more important question: is there a printer that can be bought for money that is good, lasts long and is made to actually delight the user?

Arnt 2y ago
What delights you? Get a B&W Brother laser (or LED, nowadays), it'll be good, last long and… I expect it won't delight you because you want to print in colour, or if you don't want that, people will send you things that you need to print and they presume colour. I replaced my B&W Brother with a colour LED a few years ago, because some documents really need colour. Sigh. MFC-L3770. The colours aren't good but the printer does what I want and without any hassle.
- rlkf 2y ago
  I have a Brother DCP-9020CDW which I've owned for over a decade and which still keeps humming. A bit expensive with four toners and a drum, but that's color laser for you. I'm very happy with it, and I guess I'd be equally happy with any Brother MFC-LxxxxCDW that's one market now. If one wants an inkjet, I'd go for an Epson EcoTank.
- heelix 2y ago
  The Brother HLL8350CDW I picked up in 2014 is still rocking along, with cartridges for the color laser being reasonable. My Bride has a brother mfc-l3770cdw, which she has been happy with - that was picked up a few years ago.
deng 2y ago
Finally bought one of the Epson EcoTank printers last year (ET-3850 to be precise). Yes, they are more expensive, but I find them a delight to use. Printer comes with a full set of ink and even an extra bottle of black ink, which will probably last me for another year (one bottle lasts for ~7000 pages). Pricing of ink is at least not outrageous, given how long it lasts. Zero problems with clogged print heads or similar, but I also print pretty regularly. We use that thing over the network for the whole family, also has Linux drivers which have worked flawlessly for me.

31337Logic 2y ago

+1 for Brother. After being an HP family for decades, they pretty much forced our hand with recent enschittification of their hardware and service. Discovered and purchased various Brother printers and MFCs for myself and 2 other extended family members. All 3 devices print flawlessly, have a simple UI, can use 3rd party toners (hello!), and you aren't forced to swap out a toner just because the "Change Toner" light turns on. (ie you can remove the toner, shake, replace, and keep printing until it's actually all used up, according to you!) Not to mention, the wired and wireless functions work flawlessly. I'll end with this: these are the first printers where everyone in my family can print from whatever device they're using: Windows, Linux, and Android. Honestly, I didn't even know we were at "this level" when it came to home printing.

ProllyInfamous 2y ago
I have both a Brother B&W photocopier and an HP color laser printer — and I love them both. The only reason I can tolerate them (after having-owned dozens of printers over several decades) is because they are themselves over a decade old, each. They never complain about subscription fees nor "genuine" cartridges installed. For each machine, there is a "manual override" feature which allows you to get the most toner out of each cartridge (with minimal quality sacrifice). For the color machine, Amazon toner knock-offs cost about 1/8th (no exaggeration) as OEM-genuines. As I immediately laminate most color print-outs, I am not worried about toner quality issues (i.e. flaking), but so-far have had none.
euroderf 2y ago
I've read in another HN thread that Brothers have begun rejecting third-party toner cartridges.
- 31337Logic 2y ago
  Damn. 3rd party is all I use on them. :-( Memo to self: Don't flash any firmware on my working devices. Ever.

more_corn 2y ago

Because they can’t find a printer company who isn’t hateful.

FiatLuxDave 2y ago

Sometimes because we aren't the one who bought it (again!). A few years back, my sister bought a HP scanner/printer, then moved away and left it to me. She always liked it, but I never did. Then, after my mother died, I needed to scan my mother's death certificate for a legal thing with a short deadline. The printer was out of ink. The UI did not want to allow me to access the scanning feature without replacing the ink (I've since learned that there is a non-obvious workaround for this). So, the scanner wouldn't work without ink, and my mom had just died, and I had to get this thing scanned before 5 pm, and... The scene from Office Space was mild compared to what happened. There were broken pieces all over the room. I left the room like that for a few days, because I just didn't want to deal with it. My sister came to stay with me for a bit after the funeral, and I had to apologize and tell her that I needed to clean up the guest room (where the printer was located). When she saw what had happened, I explained, and she was a bit worried about my mental state. In an attempt to be helpful, so I wouldn't be without a scanner/printer, she bought me a replacement. The exact same fucking model. Her heart was in the right place. I still have it, and I hate it. But I haven't killed it. Yet.

garbawarb 2y ago

All the Brother-is-hassle-free praise is surprising to me. I've had endless network issues with mine.