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How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

kevin.deldycke.com

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Re: How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

#41

Post by simias »

bArray wrote: post #30

I can understand HP wanting to prevent their customers from being conned into buying false cartridges, or wanting to ensure the best possible experience for customers. But. Is it not enough to bring up a dialogue or warning telling the user it's false and they are breaking warranty, rather than outright disabling the cartridge? This seems like HP is acting anti-competitively, such that a third party would struggle to…

Your willingness to entertain the thought that HP may be acting on behalf of their customer's best interests is certainly commendable, but I don't think HP deserves it.

It's common knowledge that ink cartridges are a racket and the real money maker for printer manufacturers. I have absolutely zero doubt that this move was only done in order to coerce their users into buying ridiculously overpriced first-party cartridges.

Re: How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

#42

Post by hrktb »

simonboulton wrote: post #35

I don't want to be an apologist for HP or any other printer manufacturer, but there is at least one point that seems to be missed in this debate. If I design a printer, whether inkjet or any other type, I probably design it to some pretty tight tolerances in terms of the ink or toner. So I probably don't want people to drop in cartridges where the manufacturing tolerances might be way off the mark as they might well…

The way around this could be to have the printer validate new cartridges through a test print, with eventually internal sensors to raise errors as needed. That would be to me the cleanest way for HP to handle third party ink.

Re: How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

#43

Post by BiteCode_dev »

bArray wrote: post #30

I can understand HP wanting to prevent their customers from being conned into buying false cartridges, or wanting to ensure the best possible experience for customers. But. Is it not enough to bring up a dialogue or warning telling the user it's false and they are breaking warranty, rather than outright disabling the cartridge? This seems like HP is acting anti-competitively, such that a third party would struggle to…

> This seems like HP is acting anti-competitively

I believe that they are and that it's not just a feeling. Some of their printers also used to tell your cartridges were empty before they were.

Printer breaks very fast and support don't really help you: https://sebsauvage.net/streisand.me/matronix/index.php?20200... (french).

Their policy on recurring payment is also pretty damning: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/11/ink-stained-wretches-b...

Re: How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

#44

Post by cm2187 »

simonboulton wrote: post #35

I don't want to be an apologist for HP or any other printer manufacturer, but there is at least one point that seems to be missed in this debate. If I design a printer, whether inkjet or any other type, I probably design it to some pretty tight tolerances in terms of the ink or toner. So I probably don't want people to drop in cartridges where the manufacturing tolerances might be way off the mark as they might well…

Then void the warranty if the device is used with unsupported cartridges.

Re: How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

#45

Post by vetinari »

pizza234 wrote: post #15
alpanka wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HP laserjets have pretty good Linux support, it's usually plugnplay on Ubuntu.

Confirmed, although it should be noted that some may require a blob ("Binary plugin") in order to print and/or scanning (mosts frequently scanning). See table here: https://developers.hp.com/hp-linux-imaging-and-printing/bina... . > Most Linux distributions include HPLIP with their software, but most do not include the plug-in This is not exactly pleasing for open source enthusiasts (me included).

That proprietary plugin for scanning provides WSD and eSCL (AirScan) support. However, your distro might use recent enough sane and sane-airscan, that does support these protocols.

Due to recommendation here on HN, I've been checking Brother laser printers. They also require installing a proprietary package from the manufacturer, and a proprietary tool for the print queue setup.

Re: How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

#47

Post by taneliv »

alpanka wrote: post #12
a012 wrote: post #10

Most of printer drivers are BS. I also bought a printer after lockdown, and had to spent hours to do research on the printer model that's interested me: Mac & linux compatible. The result is Brother is the most reliable and less BS than the rest printers. In the end, I bought a wireless Brother printer, and you can throw whatever cartridge in to it.

HP laserjets have pretty good Linux support, it's usually plugnplay on Ubuntu.

I have had nothing but problems with HP LaserJet CP1025nw color on Ubuntu in the last five years or so (and on Arch I could not make it print anything). Bought it based on similar comments, so buyer beware.

The only thing that has worked (at all) has been the instructions and software from http://foo2zjs.rkkda.com/, even if the site looks way too sketchy to my liking. Recently, though, even those drivers have started misbehaving and do not print the last centimeter or two on the page---the solution is to select upside down printing in the print settings.

Re: How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

#48

Post by remus »

arusahni wrote: post #17
k_ wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't print anything anymore. I wish =/ Most of the documents I have to print are documents to be printed, signed, and scanned again (or sent by mail - not email). Some (including my employer) still don't accept anything else than signature on real paper somehow.. Luckily I have a "re-purpose device" at home (a young child with a huge appetite for drawings), but I'd still like to avoid this waste.

Some PDF viewers (e.g., Preview, Okular) let you place images of your signature on a document and then export the "signed" version. I haven't had issues with getting these documents accepted.

I've got a tablet so can actually sign PDFs with a proper signature.

None the less, a company the other day insisted that I print out a form, sign it, take a picture of the signed form and send them that. It was almost enough to bin them off, but unfortunately I was deep enough in the bureaucracy by that point that sucking it up was less hassle.

Re: How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

#49

Post by GekkePrutser »

bArray wrote: post #30

I can understand HP wanting to prevent their customers from being conned into buying false cartridges, or wanting to ensure the best possible experience for customers. But. Is it not enough to bring up a dialogue or warning telling the user it's false and they are breaking warranty, rather than outright disabling the cartridge? This seems like HP is acting anti-competitively, such that a third party would struggle to…

> I can understand HP wanting to prevent their customers from being conned into buying false cartridges, or wanting to ensure the best possible experience for customers.

Nah, that's just the marketing PR blurb they attach to this stuff.

The real reason is $$$, nothing else.

Re: How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

#50

Post by LeonM »

Nextgrid wrote: post #31
LeonM wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have run a paperless business (and life, mostly) for the past 10 years. For some old-fashoned customers I always carried a Brother DS-mobile 600 portable document scanner in my bag. The scanner was expensive, but really nice. And it worked perfectly with MacOS 'capture' application that existed on Snowleapard (10.6). However, Apple removed TWAIN support in MacOs Lion (10.7), and Brother refused to release updated d…

A solution (if you still need the scanner) is to use VueScan: https://www.hamrick.com It's an application that has its own (reverse-engineered) drivers for many USB scanners that doesn't depend on the system having support for it. I've used it and it works perfectly, though the UI is quite complex at first glance due to the amount of various configuration options it offers.

I did end up using VueScan, but not being impressed with it. My use case was scanning 1 or more pages into a PDF document. This was really easy to do with Apple's 'Capture' software. None of the alternatives (like VueScan) came close to the effectiveness of Capture.

I remember also being quite annoyed that I had to spend more money on a VueScan license, just because Brother refused to release a compatible driver for a scanner that was then still sold as new and 'MacOS compatible'. This was not a cheap scanner, the least they could have done was to compensate the license cost of the piece of software that made their product usable.

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