Follow Slashdot stories on Twitter

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
HP DRM Printer

HP Finds Exciting New Way To DRM Printers (theverge.com) 97

Posted by msmash from the staying-classy dept.
An anonymous reader shares a report: Amazon's No. 1 bestselling printer is the HP Deskjet 2755e. It's not hard to see why. For just $85, you get a wireless color printer, scanner, and six months of free ink. It also comes with HP Plus, one of the most dastardly schemes Big Inkjet has ever unleashed. I'm not talking about how printers quietly waste their own ink, or pretend cartridges are empty when they're not, or lock out official cartridges from other regions. Heck, I'm not even talking about "Dynamic Security," the delightful feature where new HP firmware updates secretly contain malware that blocks batches of third-party cartridges while pretending to harden your printhead against hacks. No, the genius of HP's latest scheme is that it's hiding in plain sight, daring you to unwittingly sign away your rights. Take the free ink, and HP controls your printer for life.

First introduced in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, HP Plus was built around FOMO right from the start. You get just seven days to claim your free ink, starting the moment you plug a new printer into the wall. Act now, and it'll also extend your warranty a full year, give you an "Advanced HP Smart app," and plant trees on your behalf. Because why wouldn't you want to save the forest? Here's one reason, as detailed in a new complaint by the International Imaging Technology Council (IITC) that might turn into a false advertising fight: HP Plus comes with a firmware update that utterly removes your printer's ability to accept third-party ink. You have to buy "genuine" HP ink as long as you use the printer.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

HP Finds Exciting New Way To DRM Printers More

HP Finds Exciting New Way To DRM Printers

Comments Filter:

  • Screw HP (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26, 2023 @11:03AM (#63553139)
    I'm waiting for the exploit that randomly prints penises as letterhead. That would be an entertaining hack to the "smart app."

  • monthly fee to print with an min and max pages (Score:4, Informative)

    by Joe_Dragon ( 2206452 ) on Friday May 26, 2023 @11:05AM (#63553145)

    monthly fee to print with an min and max pages (as part of the ink level you are buying)

    and there is an min level of monthly pages that you need to buy to be able to print at all.
    also if you go over your max pages you can pay the overage fee or upgrade to an higher level.

  • The bad guys win. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Brain-Fu ( 1274756 ) on Friday May 26, 2023 @11:06AM (#63553147) Homepage Journal

    HP does evil things like this because it works. They rake it in on evil deeds like this. The community of people who care is so small that HP can safely ignore them.

    I recommend the "Brother" line of printers, as they are reliable and don't contain any HP-style evil. I DON'T recommend getting angry at HP, because anger is an unhealthy emotion to hold on to, and your anger towards HP will not harm HP in any way whatsoever. Just buy Brother and move on.

    • Re:The bad guys win. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Friday May 26, 2023 @11:16AM (#63553179)

      I went from Brother to OKI (b/w laser), just as good, but OKI was on sale and I wanted one with Ethernet.

      • My current Brother HL2360DW B&W laser printer (the previous one lasted almost twelve years) has wired ethernet and it works just fine with whatever brand of toner I can find cheapest from Amazon. Other than the toner replacement and a few paper jams it has given me no grief.

      • I keep hearing about stuff (Including devices) connected to the cloud being hacked, used as zombies to engage in Denial of Service attacks etc. As somebody who used to program embedded systems, I'm skeptical these devices are tested much for network security. If I really needed a printer on my local network, I'd probably try to do it with a cheap little SBC (single board computer) connected via USB to the printer and let the SBC have the ethernet connection. Then I'd have more control over how the sethup

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by gweihir ( 88907 )

          Why would I connect a printer to the cloud? It is connected to my LAN and that is it.

    • Re:The bad guys win. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Jerrry ( 43027 ) on Friday May 26, 2023 @11:41AM (#63553277)

      I recommend the "Brother" line of printers, as they are reliable and don't contain any HP-style evil.

      I beg to differ. I have a Brother all-in-one printer/scanner/FAX and the damn thing absolutely refuses to scan documents to PDF on a USB thumb drive if the ink cartridge is empty.

    • I second Brother, but ONLY for their office laser printers. Their consumer line of ink sluggers ain't that much better than HP and Epson.

      • I have a Brother inkjet and it works great. Setup didn't require a phone app (one is available and optional), it doesn't require an internet connection, I control when and whether to do firmware updates, it prints fine and scans fine.

        • I've heard mixed reviews from consumer grade Brothers. Still heaps ahead of Epson, HP and the like, but it seems that even Brother starts to slip various bullshit into their consumer products.

          The office printers remain clean, though.

    • Re:The bad guys win. (Score:4, Informative)

      by EvilSS ( 557649 ) on Friday May 26, 2023 @12:31PM (#63553479)

      I recommend the "Brother" line of printers, as they are reliable and didn't contain any HP-style evil.

      Fixed that for you: https://old.reddit.com/r/print... [reddit.com]

    • I’ve had great luck with Brother Laser Printers except for one color one that died 3 weeks before the warranty.

      No problem, I thought - they were super helpful up until asking me to read the serial numbers off of the toner cartridges and support came to a dead halt since the non-Brother cartridges “could be the source of the problem”

      I was not going to run out and buy 4 new Brother cartridges to continue troubleshooting - that printer went into the trash.

      TLDR; if you buy a Brother laser prin

    • I wrote about HP four years ago, and they have gotten worse: https://productrevue.ca/index.... [productrevue.ca]

  • 6 months of free ink? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by dmay34 ( 6770232 ) on Friday May 26, 2023 @11:07AM (#63553151)

    How the heck much ink are you guys using?

    If you are printing so much that "6 months of free ink" sounds like a deal, then you probably either
    1) need to reconsider how much you are currently printing, or
    2) likely need a more high quality print setup that whatever home-office joke this thing is likely to be.

    • Most likely the main victims—er, customers—would be small businesses that do not have any sort of IT department that can research such purchases as being cost effective.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dmay34 ( 6770232 )

        A small business owner that is too stupid or stuck in their ways to ask basic business questions like "Maybe I can save some costs if I don't print out every email" deserves to be taken advantage of like this.

        • The main printing need I see from small businesses is invoices and paperwork. When we are talking about small businesses, this looks like a good deal on the surface. No one has done an analysis of how much they print and how they can save costs in the long run.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Sebby ( 238625 )

        Most likely the main victims—er, customers—would be small businesses...

        No - "victims" is correct, as HP's real customers are its investors/shareholders (you know, the actual ones they're accountable to and actually care about).

      • Our company is one of those small businesses. Someone purchased several HP printers with the 'e' suffix before we (or really, *I*, since I'm the IT department) realized how awful HP's practices are. I know now that HP has multiple lines and that some of them don't require an internet connection, but it's too late. HP is now on our "do not buy from" list.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jonadab ( 583620 )
      It's an inkjet printer. Even if the only thing you ever print is your annual Christmas letter to grandma, it's still going to demand a hundred dollars' worth of ink cartridges every few weeks all year long. And if you ignore it for too long, the printer will brick itself.

      What I'm trying to figure out, is how they stop people from just junking the thing when the six months are up and getting a new one. Inkjet printers aren't exactly a buy-once-use-forever product. Is the six months' of free ink a one-tim
      • Inkjet printers have a purpose... high quality photos, and art prints. But you wouldn't want to use these consumer level printers for that... get a laser for day to day, and unless you print a staggering amount of photos or art prints - farm it out to a print shop.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

          Inkjet printers have a purpose... high quality photos, and art prints.

          Inkjets print mediocre quality photos. The little ones do that in a package that can sit on your desk and also print random other documents. The big ones come with their own floor stand and at that size the quality doesn't really matter as much.

          If you've got one of the little ones, go to a department store with photofinishing like Walmart for your photos. They'll be higher quality and probably cheaper. If you're printing posters, printsho

      • Judging by the numbers of relatively new inkjet printers and all-in-ones I see in dumpsters, I'm guessing quite a few people do this. And I can see why - I would guess $85 is about the cost of a set of replacement ink cartridges.

        Also, unless you fish them out to salvage bits like stepper motors out of them, they are pretty useless. If they are in the trash, it's because they need new ink cartridges. Granted, if you replace the ink cartridges it'll probably work, but for the same money you can just buy a

  • Right from the article.."First introduced in 2020..."

    Hardly news. Anyone who has been paying attention knows HP shit the bed when the original founders left.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ebh ( 116526 )

      First bed-shitting: Bill Hewlett retires, Dave Packard dies, Carly (*spit*) replaces Lew Platt, and justifies HP's first mass layoff ever by making up a story that this was something Packard had wished for right before he died.

  • These days people ask me less and less for printer recommendations as the world moves more to paperless. When they do, I immediately recommend against HP first. Second, I recommend against ink jets. Third, I advise against color unless they really, really need color.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Same here. I have a very affordable, very good b/w OKI laser with duplex and I had a very affordable, very good b/w Brother before.

      • I have a Brother laser printer w/duplex. It still works well after more than a decade. It even accepts non-Brother toner cartridges, though I've found they are not as good as the Brother toner cartridges.... :)

        • I just replaced a Brother printer that I'd bought new over 8 years ago. Not to mention the fact that the toner cart that came with the printer lasted me for nearly 1/2 of that time. When the printer finally refused to print without a new toner, I bought a 3rd party one that worked perfectly. After the 8+ years, this printer finally just stopped printing, and I replaced it with another Brother of the same/similar model. Oh and by the way, both of these printers were purchased for less than $100 each. Admiite

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by jonadab ( 583620 )
      I still get a lot of people asking me for printer recommendations. The first thing I tell them is, it's not worth the hassle unless you print every day. If you just need to print occasionally, take it to Staples, it's *way* less of a headache.

      The second thing I tell them, is that if they do genuinely need a printer at home, get a secondhand laser printer that used to be in an office somewhere and was replaced after 3-5 years on principle. The print quality is better. The toner costs only a little more t
      • A friend of mine was fed up with her office inkjet as it was slow. I think it was like a page every 2-3 minutes. Sure you can get faster models but the price gets disproportionately higher. Now that does not sound slow until she has to wait on the printer for 10 minutes every time she needed a customer contract or vendor invoices and the other person has to wait. And that is if no one else was printing something. Granted it was a consumer model not meant for the volume she was printing at work. Confirming s

      • the toner doesn't go bad from old age

        It does, at least for some models. There is a piece of soft plastic in contact with the drum, called "wiper blade", its purpose is to remove the unused toner from the drum. Over time, the plastic "sets" and does not properly contact the drum anymore. This can happen to a sealed cartridge, not just the one that was installed in the printer. A NOS cartridge may have already failed.

        At least a NOS inkjet head seems to work just fine.

        I have a laser printer, but use it rarely. It is still less hassle than going t

    • I wreck lots of inkjet printers - the motors are good for hobbyists even if mostly 24v. The PC board will have an eeprom. I wonder what would happen if you save the original, and can switch back and forth, even after a 'Trade restriction' downgrade. EEprom duplicators can be as little as $10. Debugging tools like Bus Pirate is also an option. And yes, HP is now using undocumented eeproms.

  • Isn't this just a case of egg and chicken? They are only pricing the printer so low because they're ripping us on the DRM'd consumables. Properly proves DMCA is a scam.

  • Skip the ink-pissers (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Get a laser, and one that does PostScript. I'd get mono laser, but colour laser does well enough to print your links blue and colour your bar charts and stuff. Maybe a little better than that too.

    Get your photos printed professionally, unless you want to be your own professional photo printer, then get an Epson. Either an ecotank or with a CISS if you have the volume. You'll want an Epson anyway because that's the only one that doesn't heat the ink, so it'll stay vivid longer in sunlight. Or get one of tho

    • no postscript (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Virtually no printer contains genuine Postscript, and you will sooner or later find a print job that the printer barfs on. Could take months if it's a $10,000 office printer, could take a week if it's a $500 home printer. Use PCL mode which is much simpler and doesn't have these issues.

  • On the risk of repeating myself... (Score:3)

    by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Friday May 26, 2023 @11:12AM (#63553165)

    Do not buy HP printers. Never, ever.

    • Re:On the risk of repeating myself... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by UnknowingFool ( 672806 ) on Friday May 26, 2023 @11:43AM (#63553279)

      Also Samsung printers as they sold their printer business to HP. I had a decent Samsung printer and I use the past tense "had" even though I still have the printer. When they sold to HP, all support now goes to HP.

      While Samsung printing/scanning software was not the best, it is terrible under HP. Drivers are a mess and functionality it used to have is gone or buggy. Scanning image == random crash. Scanning at the resolution the machine has on the original spec sheet is a nope as it downgrades it to half the resolution for no reason. Also forget about Linux support from HP.

      As with all things HP, it requires a huge install of unneeded spyware—software just to get basic functionality. But of course you cannot load previous working software as it is now missing from the now defunct website. Thankfully I only need to print a few times a year.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by jonadab ( 583620 )
      Eh, I had an HP Laserjet 6p that I used for years and years. Loved that thing. Never gave me any trouble.

      I eventually replaced it because it became impractical to maintain a computer with a parallel port. But any printer of similar vintage, would've had exactly the same problem.

  • But wait! There's more! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Merk42 ( 1906718 ) on Friday May 26, 2023 @11:12AM (#63553167)
    HP offers exciting new Firmware features such as bricking your printer [bleepingcomputer.com]
  • If you look it that way you won't be disappointed. BUT why would anyone still buy an HP anything on purpose?

  • What has happened to HP? (Score:3)

    by QuietLagoon ( 813062 ) on Friday May 26, 2023 @11:19AM (#63553193)
    Once the epitome of quality, now it seems to have become more of a low quality bottom-feeder, with the apparently forced printer-supplies subscriptions and malfunctioning equipment. What has happened to the HP of old?

    • Re:What has happened to HP? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by timeOday ( 582209 ) on Friday May 26, 2023 @12:15PM (#63553391)
      The answer is it's tough to be in a declining industry. How about a nice HP LaserJet 2, that was a solid product, right? It was. And its MSRP was $2,695 in 1987, which would be $7,290 now. And they sold so many.

      Well, that's not the business they're in anymore, because it doesn't exist. The same small business today might buy, at most something like a Brother MFCâL8905CDW Business Color Laser which is $700 - 90% less than HP used to get.

  • canon or epson with very large reservoir of liquid ink...never look back

  • I like that I don't have to think about when to get more ink (made that mistake many times). The price turns out to be cheaper than what we were paying before. I could care less if they disable third party ink because I want to use their service. I get that some might not want that though. For me though... the service has been working well. $5 a month is all I usually spend. Sometimes I will up that to $10 if I print more.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Xenx ( 2211586 )
      Really, the problem comes down to one of marketing and obfuscation. The service is fine, as long as you know what you're getting into. The issue comes down to when people, a lot of the average consumers out there, don't understand and get locked in. They might not even care, as long as they actually understood it upfront. I don't entirely blame HP for people not understanding, but they could make it more transparent as well.

    • Well if you enjoy getting ripped off then spend your money however you like.

  • I print about 2-3 pages every 6 months with my early 2000s B/W samsung laser printer I bought at an auction for $20. Almost all of them Amazon return labels. I think I've had it for 6 years now and I haven't changed the ink yet. I may not be the target demographic but if my case is anything close to typical, I don't think they should be fucking over customers if they want to sell new printers in 2023.

  • IT Person Pro-Tip: Burn HP printers ending with e (Score:5, Informative)

    by urbanriot ( 924981 ) on Friday May 26, 2023 @11:34AM (#63553257)
    All HP printers with a model ending with 'e' is an HP+ printer requiring an HP account and requires an active connection to the internet regardless of whether or not you're using it with a USB connection. You read that right, even if the printer isn't connected to a network for network or wireless printing, it must have an internet connection or it will eventually stop printing. An example, "HP LaserJet Pro MFP 4101fdwe", has a USB port but requires the internet. "HP LaserJet Pro MFP 4101fdw Printer", has a USB port, network port, wireless capabilities, does not require the internet and it's a decent printer. The 'e' printers also require authentic HP cartridges.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by M0nkge ( 2920885 )
      Hmmm, just bought one of those, officejet pro 8022e to be exact, no account no issues. on wifi, static IP and dummy gateway. Is anyone keeping track of which firmware to avoid? PS: My canon just decided in the middle of a job that it had the wrong printhead and nothing at all works unless it's changed! it will not be missed, it took forever to start printing.
      • It may just be Laserjet with the 'e' rule then, not Officejet. I had this confirmed by an HP support rep a while back after I had to have him reset an account that was on a printer setup by a user but I believe the context was laser printers in the conversation but I may have assumed all of their printers.

    • HP printers refuse to use USB cables these days for me. Even with my very old still working 8450 Photosmart in newer OSes (e.g., Windows 10 and macOS Big Sur) due to drivers. :(

  • You pay basically nothing for the printer. In return for getting that bargain up front you're agreeing to only buy expensive cartridges from HP. This isn't "dastardly". It would be crazy, maybe even a little deceitful, to get that bargain price for the printer, then renege on the deal to buy their cartridges.

    • The ONLY way that would be a fair deal is if HP made that crystal clear BEFORE you bought one of these "e" printers. Spell the deal out in PLAIN ENGLISH (not legalese) that in exchange for getting the printer at the listed price, you agree to only use HP branded consumables, the printer must be connected to the internet at all times, and not allow the purchase until/unless the buyer scrolls down the whole thing and then has a "agree" button to click.

      Yeah, I KNOW this will NEVER EVER happen..

    • What deal? Unless I am missing something no one that purchases these printers is signing a contract to continue to buy HP cartridges for the life of the printer.

      If HP wants to actually make a deal for ink supply over printer lifetime then they can start offering actual signed contracts. Technical DRM solutions are aggravating, expensive, and eventually destroy the brand. Shrinkwrap/clickwrap licenses are unenforceable.

  • Consumers: This is not 2003 (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    HP doesn't sell you a printer, it sells you a printing service attached to HP equipment.

    Think of it like commercial software (not FOSS)-- you don't own the software, you own a license to use it under T&C. If you thought this wasn't the case with your printer, you were mistaken.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sjames ( 1099 )

      That's not what they sell you, but it is what they give you after deceiving you into believing it's a sale.

  • I get that it kind of made sense 5-10 years ago; it was the best thing on the market and reasonable price... and their habits were really only painful if you printed a lot or very little.

    Today I don't understand why someone would get anything but a laser printer, preferrably Brother or a brand that doesn't try to constantly screw you over. When you need color, send it out.

  • The printer DOES comply with the rules that it does not exclude the cartridges from other manufacturers or cartridge-rechargers, until you apply the (optional) firmware patch AFTERWARDS. Still does the tracking, watching everything you do and reporting it, but it's compliant with the EPEAT rules. It's certainly not the only vendor trying to lock customers into using only their own line of products (Apple, John Deere, most makes of cars, etc).
  • Shoot, the MFP copier industry has done this for years. They "crum chip" the cartridges. If a 3rd party makes a compatible toner that works, they will update the software on the machine to make sure the aftermarket toner won't work. It's a cat & mouse game. What really ticks me off (been in the photocopier business as a tech for 40+ years) is the raping of the consumer over toner. Same as ink. Charge you x amount for black, but 2-3-4 times as much for the cyan, yellow or magenta! I KNOW it's the same

    • It may be a stupid question, but why update the firmware on a printer at all. Unless there is some specific problem that can be solved by updating, why do it, especially if it makes the non-original cartridges to stop working.

      I have a HP Professional Series Color 2500CM printer (inkjet). It is old enough that even Windows XP has a built-in driver. The print heads and ink cartridges have expiry dates (yeah, even if you don't use it, it "expires"). However, I noticed that the expiration dates only work if I u

  • Anyone choosing HP deserves whatever they get.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by amorsen ( 7485 )

      The problem is that HP printers actually work. They work from pretty much any device, "driverless".

      Brother's Linux drivers are a nightmare.

  • What's the actual limit? Because 6 months of free ink for 85 bucks can actually be a bargain if you have a print shop.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by irving47 ( 73147 )

      I'm 90% sure there is a limit... "Normal home use" number of pages but not sure how many.

  • Xerox (Score:2)

    by JBMcB ( 73720 )

    Bought a Xerox Phaser 6500N about 15 years ago. Five years ago the network board died so it's running via USB to a Raspberry Pi running Samba/Cups as as web server. I think I bought it on sale for $350. It just runs and runs and runs. A full set of 3rd party toner cartridges cost around $80 and lasts years. The minimalist drivers are still built-in to Windows, and don't require registration, or a subscription, or any of that garbage.

    The only downside is that it's, relatively, a behemoth. About as big as a l

  • the real question ... (Score:3)

    by pz ( 113803 ) on Friday May 26, 2023 @12:35PM (#63553505) Journal

    ... is why anyone in their right mind would buy an inkjet printer over a laser printer.

    • I did. Epson ET-8550 with ink tanks. I print photos on paper up to A3+. It's madly cheaper than any print store for any size paper, but from A4 on up the difference is staggering. A 10x15 print costs 2.5 cts of ink, plus paper of the quality I want, A3 full colour borderless is 20 cts of ink, and including 1 sheet of Epson Matte Archival paper the total is about a buck. Any print shop will charge easily 10 bucks for that, and no laser that I know of comes close in quality, aside from not printing bigger tha

  • What if the printer was FREE with the purchase of say... 1 year's worth of HP ink? Would most of us still have a problem with it?

  • Next up (Score:3)

    by topham ( 32406 ) on Friday May 26, 2023 @12:44PM (#63553545) Homepage

    Proprietary paper

  • Clearly HP should no longer be on my approved list.

  • Get the printer, recycle it when the free ink runs out.

  • HP == Hard Pass

  • In the right situation, this can be OK. Imagine you need to print a lot of stuff in a relatively short period of time (say...I don't know...maybe six months or less). Getting all the ink you need to do this for free* can offset the $85 purchase price of the printer. When the free ink deal ends, donate it to whomever will take it. The tax deduction will offset the purchase price even more.

    * I have not read the fine print of the HP Plus contract, so I don't know if there's some limit on the free ink de

    • I think there is max number of pages and 500 pages may not really be 500 but be 500 based an % of the paper covered

  • Opt out I shall. - yoda
  • I'm old enough to remember Polaroid instant cameras.

    Back in the day, the camera itself was practically free. The film cartridges, however, were brutally expensive and not only could you only buy them from Polaroid, you couldn't even buy an "instant" camera from another manufacturer with its own film (Kodak tried and it was sued out of existence by Polaroid).

    Still, if you wanted a nude of your girlfriend you plunked down the cash. It was the only game in town.

  • HP disabled the scanner because ink was low (Score:3)

    by Beeftopia ( 1846720 ) on Friday May 26, 2023 @03:39PM (#63554071)

    This was at a critical moment a few days ago, trying to scan documents to send them off. Suddenly, the scanner starts throwing an error and halts. I'm in a hurry so I run through the previous issues that caused this - nothing, they're all good. But this issue is not relenting so I start troubleshooting with the HP software. It coyly reports that maybe the problem is the ink is low. Then the troubleshooting program hangs. Checking the ink reveals they are low, but green checkmarks indicate they're okay. Then the lightbulb went off - it's probably the ink. HP has disabled the scanner in my printer because the ink is low, even though the device is reporting it's fine. There are news stories of them releasing bastard updates to get more ink money.

    So, I had to run out to the store, drop a cool Benjamin on ink cartridges - going to change them all because I don't have time for this - and lo and behold, after changing all the ink cartridges - and no other changes - the scanner starts functioning again.

    I HAD moved away from HP printers, but I'd let my guard down and purchased this one after several years. This was a good reminder.

  • Epson has already been doing this for years, why is it news HP does it? HP is usually the forerunner in these sorts of things, sure. But, unfortunately their competitors have already beat them to the punch. At this point, home printing is becoming almost impossible without spending huge sums of money, so unless you're running a small printing business from home you're almost best off using one of those businesses to do a one-off print here and there.

  • "Nice little printer ya got here. Shame if it burned down some night. Me and the boys can pertect ya. We'll send a boy around each week to collect like we do with all your neighbors in Brookyn." (grabs an apple off the stack and takes a bite then throws it on the floor)
  • Caveat - maybe it was a long-game with shitty products from HP and other manufacturers preparing me to like this solution by comparison. Since i signed up for Instant Ink, i have had zero problems with the printer. Zero times have i had to go buy an ink cartridge because it dried out due to under-use. The printer just sits there printing when needed and occasionally ink arrives in the mail. Am i happy if they added DRM? No. But also ... I really don't want to go back to paying by the (seemingly needles
  • Older printers last forever. I have this almost 20-year-old HP color LaserJet that works beautifully, never jams, and the best part is the toner is dirt cheap for it because it is so old.

    • Yep. Flagship laser printers are tanks. The more expensive their initial acquisition cost was, the cheaper their cost per page and more available parts tend to be.

      Cheap laser printers tended to be disposable.

      Used flagship laser printers are the way to go.

  • Stopped buying inkjets 15 years ago
    Went with cheap to run mono laser printers and simply paid for colour printing elsewhere when I had to...about $20 so far.

    The can continue to shoot themselves in the foot as often as they like, my feet and my wallet have been far away from that for over a decade.

  • I still have my Deskjet 550c. Yeah, I'm old. I'm surprised that's not the largest-selling model. I'm also surprised so many people even have printers at home. I can't remember the last time I needed to print something.

Slashdot Top Deals

As of next Thursday, UNIX will be flushed in favor of TOPS-10. Please update your programs.

Close