You aren't the only annoyed one!

In 1980, Stallman and some other hackers at the AI Lab were refused access to the source code for the software of a newly installed laser printer, the Xerox 9700. Stallman had modified the software for the Lab's previous laser printer (the XGP, Xerographic Printer), so it electronically messaged a user when the person's job was printed, and would message all logged-in users waiting for print jobs if the printer was jammed. Not being able to add these features to the new printer was a major inconvenience, as the printer was on a different floor from most of the users. This experience convinced Stallman of people's need to be able to freely modify the software they use.

Richard Stallman Wiki

It’s surprising just how bad printer/scanner software is. The desired function is so so simple but the software gets in the way so bad.

All I want from my printer/scanner is to press print, and have it not change its IP address so Windows can’t find it. And to have a big scan button that scans and uploads to an FTP server, none of this Windows Scanner nonsense. (FWIW I actually use NAPS2 which is quite good)

What eludes me is that literally nobody except hp, xerox, canon, brother, dell, epson, kyocera, lenovo, lexmark seems to be making decent printers.

I know that the printer business is rough for sales people for some reason (the guy who I learned sales from 18 yrs ago was a printer salesman before becoming a coach). But what I don’t get is that there does not seem to be good money to make for small companies as they are not gaining on the big ones.

Is everything locked by patents or what is the deal here?

That would be cool.

Here's my new setup that might not work for everyone, but I'd recommend thinking about if you're able to.

1. Network printers are blocked from Internet by my router. They have static IP addresses allocated (permanent DHCP leases) for convenience.

2. I have some Canon laser printers. I don't want to install Canon software across my devices, so I setup a cups print server (lxc container) where I installed the software.

3. I setup and shared the printers (local network only), made them discoverable.

4. I use the CUPS web GUI over ssh tunnel if I need to check on job queues and do maintenance/admin tasks (don't usually have to).

Clients immediately find the printers on the server, no driver required.

As a bonus, I made the margins 0 on the CUPS ppd on the server so that I get to print without margins when so desired (Canon has fixed minimum margins otherwise).

The one caveat is that the Canon drivers don't work on raspberry pi (arm), so while I have a to-do to get around that by using a virtualization layer, you need a separate Intel/AMD machine for the print server if your printer doesn't support ARM.

all those "print where you want" gadgets that are on kickstarter are using an hacked hp printhead, so i guess it can be reverse engineered or there's an arduino/esp32 library

unfortunately, hp printheads are literally the worst quality and least reliable that you can find on the market in the history of inkjet printers (i don't think anyone ever made worse printheads than HP in any point of history)

edit: searching "HP 6602 printhead arduino" gives many interesting results. But still, an epson printer from the late 90s that has been kept in a humid barn for three decades would be more reliable than an hacked HP. They don't even work when new and in warranty!

If you only need to print a few pages a month or year, send them to a corner store or Walgreens or something. It's just not worth it. I'm assuming the average person needs to print 10 pages or less a year, and this is why there isn't a big push to fix this problem. I think the last time I needed to print something was in 2021.

Some printers also have trouble connecting to encrypted WIFI networks. So unfortunately people sometimes stupidly make a hidden open SSID opening themselves to attack.

So, there are a lot of additional side effects of crap printers too. Fortunately, the printer industry is possibly dying at this point..

Hahaha and we know what Xerox Bullshit software did...

This would be awesome.

No specific manufacturer in mind right now

MFDs are being tossed into dumpsters in high numbers. I keep pulling out HPs and Canons. The scanner functionality always works. I think the focus should be on hardware that is getting thrown away for environmental reasons. Even if the printing is toast, printers could be repurposed for all kinds of things since they are all network-attached now.

HP should be boycotted, so ideally FOSS f/w would only be developed for discontinued models so as to not incentivize procurement.

dell one me want

is there a dell printer one