just today I read that microsoft will stop accepting any new printer drivers. If new printers are to work, they must support mopria and IPP.

That should eventually have positive side effects for us linux users

CUPS works great when it does work but it can be a real pain in the ass. That said if you build the printer around it it would probably work pretty well

Most modern printers aren’t what you describe though, they’re either a piezo that flexes with electricity to create pressure on the ink chamber and release a precise droplet of ink or they are a thermal design where a resistor heats inside the ink chamber to create pressure that forces ink out of the nozzle and subsequently draws more ink into the chamber as it cools. Heat is used here to eject the ink but heat is not used to set the ink in either process, that is done with evaporation and absorption (which is why printing a full page image can smear).

It’s not some big secret as you’ve said, the patents are openly available, but as you’ve said they’re off limits even for noncommercial use because America is stupid. It’s true that they’re not mystical and impossible to recreate but they’re definitely harder to replicate than a heat sink with a tube cut in it, a heat break, a cartridge heater, and a metal nozzle with a (typically) 0.4mm hole

The print head in most inkjet printers (at least non commercial ones) has no moving parts (unless you count the piezo flexing). Dot matrix used needles but why recreate that unless you specifically want that for the vibes or something?

That is correct but it means it’s a lot of work for not much benefit

3d printing took off in 2009 when the stratasys patents on FDM expired. You can literally look at the history of consumer 3d printing and it’s basically nothing nothing nothing nothing 2009 reprap makerbot prusa. Similarly when SLA patents expired we suddenly got formlabs and eventually cheap resin printers.

Why reinvent the wheel? If a patent is about to expire just wait and do that. If it’s not and you truly have a novel idea for how to achieve the function that does not infringe on any patents, most people would end up trying to sell it (assuming they have the skill to bring it to market). Our culture is ruthless and requires capital to survive so I don’t necessarily fault someone for trying to secure the bag, though I wish they would at least do it in a way that wasn’t totally gross

The latter. Someone could create a novel means of transferring ink onto paper in a way that results in high resolution images and give it to the world for free i suppose

Damn, no wonder the kids ain't alright.

obscenely expensive birth, no parental leave, no childcare support... it's a wonder they last that long.

edit: now op changed parents to patents and i look like an idiot. let us make fun of your obvious typo

Now that I think about it that is when mine started to get pretty shitty.

You can buy dedicates scanners who don't fuck with you.

CANON PIXMA MG 2440 which I have also has full Linux support OOB without the bullshit, either print or scan. But it's an old boy now, it can't do the kewl ayy oo tee bullshit like LAN printing