Comic Strips

It is important to point out that it isn't the brand that makes it good, it is the fact that it is laser.

I used to have a Brother "multi function center" printer/scanner/photocopier/fax that used inkjet and it was pure asshole design. Wasting expensive ink just by remaining plugged in and refusing to do anything if one cartridge was low on ink (but was actually still half full)

But if I had to single out a brand that should absolutely be avoided for printers it is HP. They do asshole DRM to a whole new level. They bricked a brand new ink cartridge because I didn't put it in properly at first.

Now I have a laser printer and the nightmare is finally over.

Mate, they sold you a printer that prints white?

I’m convinced this is the only good printer in existence. They are an absolute workhorse.

Brother used to be the go-to but there was a post a week or so ago showing how they are starting to hold laser toner hostage.

I replaced my HP inkjet with a Brother laser a little over a year ago and seems to be going okay. Though I'm hesitant to let it update firmware.

The Linux version of a printer is just buy a brother color laser (or non color). I bought one for 85 bucks like 15 years ago and it still chugging along

Ohh God ... That's a very, very tall order.

You wouldn't think that it's that complicated. I worked in a print-on-demand house for about 5 years, The amount of black magic fuckery that goes on between streaming data into that driver and getting stuff on the page is absolutely insane.

You're standing on the backs of like 40 years of trade secrets and poorly implemented protocols at half-assed feature sets.

And then the worst part is, HP is spent the last 20 years making the printer cheaper. Most of the inkjets don't even have steppers anymore, just DC motors and a resistive feedback ribbon.

Developing a multi-platform certified signed driver would be a pretty decent hurdle as well.

Can't we just stop printing? Change things over to black and white thermal when we really need something that's pretty easy to do.

I would love to make a living lobotomizing smart devices.

Someone could probably do this. But it would just be a fun project, not replicable.

You'd need to write your own printer driver. There are probably some open source libraries out there to do most of the heavy lifting, but it's still a project.

The big issue is going to be the interface between the pi and the printer's "motors and wiring". Doable, but too finicky to publish a "kit" or something for someone else to replicate. It could be worth the work if it would help other people, but I don't think that's on the table.

Honestly, I think anyone with the ability to do that would probably find it easier to just build their own printer.

Mostly true, but a few months ago there was some reports of an automatic firmware update that blocked 3rd party ink or toner. It was probably my fault since I just bought a Brother and this sort of thing always seems to happen to me.

This reminds me, I need to learn how to partition my network to keep thebprinter from reaching the internet.

And if you want to print photos, get it done at a lab. It'll cost more or less the same or even be cheaper, and come out much better.

4. Don't update the printer that might put DRM in after the fact.

0. don't buy an inkjet printer

Better pro-life tip.

1)Buy a laser printer instead of inkjet and never worry about ink again.

That's it. That's the only step.

Yes. But I use a cheap Brother laser printer.

Or you can buy a safety razor and a 100 pack of blades and never have to think about razors again for the rest of your life.

Shaving is one of the most basic of human grooming techniques going back hundreds of years, we figured that shit out ages ago. Ignore Gillette's marketing, ignore BIC's "cheap" prices. Just get a no-name safety razor and some blades and you'll be sorted for the rest of your life. You don't need fancy shaving creams either, lather up some soap and rub it all over your face. Done. Easy. Cheap. Sustainable. Now you can use your time on picking your nose or playing video games or whatever you wanna do for fun!