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HP have updated their printers to ban ‘non-HP’ cartridges

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Re: HP have updated their printers to ban ‘non-HP’ cartridges

#231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely not because printer patents will kill you. There are a handful of companies that hold all the patents necessary to build a printer. If you try to build one from scratch "taking inspiration" from consumer ones you will be sued into oblivion

Patent terms for printers would be at most 20 years. Perfectly good laser printers existed >20 years ago. You can tear down an old printer and make a clone of all functional and non-artistic aspects without infringing IP. In theory, patent specifications should provide a manual to help make any once-patented aspects of the device. Indeed, that's the goal, in part, of the patent system to make technologies available i…

Literally, what happened to 3D printers: a zombie/niche sector until the FDM patents expired in 2009.

Re: HP have updated their printers to ban ‘non-HP’ cartridges

#232

What I find notable whenever something like this is in the news, is that these user-hostile features don't just manifest through abiogenesis, or spontaneous generation. User-hostile features are created by people. Just once, I would like to see an AMA by someone who was directly involved in creating a user-hostile feature - whether it's locking down printers or any of the countless other examples that come up on a we…

> "Who cares, these are printers, not chemical weapons"

Could you imagine if the defense industry adopted this? Manufacturer loses follow-on contract, soon the entire inventory "Sorry, this missile will only interface with genuine parts"

Re: HP have updated their printers to ban ‘non-HP’ cartridges

#233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve seen these kinds of decisions being made. They believe they’re worth it, their product is good enough to have a premium total ownership cost. They believe businesses want OEM. They believe they’re preventing consumers from making expensive mistakes. They believe they need to shut out low cost market entrants that begin with a supplemental product. By believe I mean that’s what their gut tells them, and their dat…

Do you think they really believe those things or are those just the things they say to convince themselves and each other that what they are doing is fine while deep down they know that it's wrong and that they're acting out of greed and are making the world worse. > Advocating for consumer welfare or improving the industry reputation falls completely flat. They don’t believe it’s what the market wants. Or they just…

> Everybody wants to think of themselves as a good guy

That's assuming a lot right here. I know way too many people who flourish in being bad (and will you tell so explicitly)

Re: HP have updated their printers to ban ‘non-HP’ cartridges

#234
post #170

I'm honestly a bit confused by the comments. I've had and installed only 5 home printers over my entire life (excluding professional printers at works) One was an already refurbished dinosaur from Xerox. 1 was a canon (would have to look for the model). The other 3 are HP LaserJet 100 Color MFP M175nw. All 5 have lasted over 10 years, the MFPs being the youngest at 12 years. That Xerox one was still going with after…

For the 20s wait - try moving the printer 20s away from everyone. I put one in the far corner of the living room and by the time you walk to it it’s already done printing.

Re: HP have updated their printers to ban ‘non-HP’ cartridges

#235

I've got an Epson Ecotank ET-7750 and really like it. (I'm kind of partial to wide format printers because schematics printed on them are easier on the eyes). That said, a really interesting startup would be an open source inkjet printer. (All the necessary patents have expired ones that are current revolve mostly around cartridges or cleaning systems). I suspect it is a kind of niche market as my kids tell me that "…

> you don't need multiple monitors to do code development if you have listing printed out Whenever I run into an especially intractable bug, one of the first techniques I attempt to use to solve it is to print out all the relevant source code and grab a conference room where I can lay it all out on the table.

I can’t feel right with printed code listings unless a wide format dot matrix printed them on the green and white bar paper :)

Re: HP have updated their printers to ban ‘non-HP’ cartridges

#236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am amazed no one talks about older HPs. I had a 4 with like 5million pages put through it, worked great. I am on a 4300DN now, in my house, got it used. Great printer. I would never buy any of their new stuff. My gosh, HP what happened? You used to make great test equipment. Then great calculators. Then great printers. Now, what? What do you do? Oh, I forgot, you give the customer a printer and hold them hostage. I…

RIP HP Laserjet 4L. These were beasts and they worked for 20 years. Even then all they needed was maintenance but the newer ones were more economical, quieter, and faster to run.

The only time I ever actually saw lights dim because of something I did was an old laserjet warming up in mejico.

Re: HP have updated their printers to ban ‘non-HP’ cartridges

#237

For those of you who haven't already, I highly recommend just biting the bullet and switching from HP to Brother for your home printing needs. I was a HP customer for decades . I had models going back to perforated paper dot-matrix printers. Finally last year I had a down-and-out fight to get my HP to do a basic task, and I bit the bullet and ordered a Brother at the recommendation of my friend. My mfc-l3750cdw Broth…

I did exactly this. After one too many bad experiences with HP, I said as soon as this printer dies, I'm getting a Brother. Then I gave up waiting, and switched as soon as the cartridge ran out, and I am so happy I did.

I now recommend friends and family to avoid HP like the plague, including laptops (which I've also had bad experiences with). Such a shame, their stuff used to be great.

Re: HP have updated their printers to ban ‘non-HP’ cartridges

#238

17 mentions of Ecotank on the 1st page of comments is a little bit sus. That said it's hard to beat older pre chip Brother laser printers for home use. Can often find a used one for around $50.

I just upgraded my computer and now my older Brother can’t scan anymore because Brother isn’t supporting it anymore. (And the app they point you to for scanning also doesn’t support it.) There are some 3rd party tools you can install apparently, but I don’t know if I want to be bothered with how much time that’s likely to take. I don’t want to support them anymore now that they’ve added a chip to their newer models,…

My dad keeps a windows XP VM around simply to scan from an old printer.

Re: HP have updated their printers to ban ‘non-HP’ cartridges

#239
post #237

For those of you who haven't already, I highly recommend just biting the bullet and switching from HP to Brother for your home printing needs. I was a HP customer for decades . I had models going back to perforated paper dot-matrix printers. Finally last year I had a down-and-out fight to get my HP to do a basic task, and I bit the bullet and ordered a Brother at the recommendation of my friend. My mfc-l3750cdw Broth…

I did exactly this. After one too many bad experiences with HP, I said as soon as this printer dies, I'm getting a Brother. Then I gave up waiting, and switched as soon as the cartridge ran out, and I am so happy I did. I now recommend friends and family to avoid HP like the plague, including laptops (which I've also had bad experiences with). Such a shame, their stuff used to be great.

For as long as I can remember, HP has hated their customers, and I'm nearly middle-aged. It's been a loooong time since HP has been great (but it was true at one point, just not in the last 25-30 years).

I also love my Brother laser printer, and don't hate my p-touch.

Re: HP have updated their printers to ban ‘non-HP’ cartridges

#240

This is terrible but next time I buy a printer it’ll probably just be the cheapest laser again since I barely get through a couple of reams of paper a decade. I currently have a cheap Dell I bought for $80 years ago. I was able to put in a new off brand toner cartridge recently but the driver only barely works on a modern Mac and I expect it will stop working completely in a major version or two.

Dell had some nice printers even if they were manufactured by someone else. I was sad to see them discontinue.

You may be able to use a generic driver that comes with MacOS for your Dell.

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