HP printer USB port covered with warning sticker in hopes you won't use it

HP wants you to print things through its cloud service, wherein you pay a subscription fee for ink and your usage is routed through its servers. To encourage you to do this, it covers the USB port …

EU needs to get their shit together and clamp down on this, absolute abomination of a company

I’m sure they’ll get to it. Trouble is there’s so many bullshit moves that companies engage in and it takes time to ban all of them.

I think the EU should ban apple devices. They claim to be pro privacy but what they really are is pro not giving everyone else your data but keeping it themselves, that’s not privacy, that’s false advertising.

That bothers me less though.

Apple “Ok yeah we’re gonna keep your data and mine it. But just us” is a whole lot better than “Lol, your shits for sale” which is Google.

How is it better? It’s still data mining.

People love to love apple but they’re just a company they don’t care about you.

I don’t understand why they get special privileges, I don’t understand why people vehemently argue in their favor of them when they’re clearly just as bad as Google. They’re just better at making you think otherwise.

Like 15 years ago I bought the cheapest Brother laser printer. It’s still going strong. The ink never dries out or fucks up. I’ve never felt like the company was trying to rape my asshole. Why anyone still plays the ink jet game I do not fuckin know. I’ve boycotted HP decades ago and to this day I continue to see reasons to never change that decision.

We got a Brother laser as well. Only print a few times a year, and the toner is always good to go when it does get switched on. Love my Brother!

Why anyone still plays the ink jet game I do not fuckin know.

Space. At least for me, space is the reason. I’m flatting at the moment and can only keep the printer in my room, and it’s already quite cramped with all my gear here. If I could get a compact color laser MFD within the same dimensions as my current Brother inkjet, I’d switch in a heartbeart. Most of the compact laser printers I’ve seen are either monochrome, or don’t include form-feed scanning, or have some or the other shortcomings.

Initial cost as well. If you only print very small amount, you’re not going to spend couple hundred bucks on the laser printer and then 100 or so bucks on a cartridge for it if you’re not going to print often

The thing is since inkjet printers dry out you spend way more on cartridges over time. Sure toner is more expensive, but you but it way less frequently.

My Canon ink jet has done well for years on cheap third party ink. It does color and even decent photo, and created many excellent school presentations for my kids. However it’s likely my last printer.

I don’t even know the last time I printed something, it’s always been for the kids’ schools and now they’re old enough to have no more of those

Ink and dye printers still rule the photo print space. Laser printers simply don’t have sufficient image quality.

Other than that I completely agree that laser printing is the way to go.

This is true but you can always order photos online from Shutterfly, etc. or go to local drug store

Sure, but that’s also less fun than doing it yourself!

I went with a laser and small dye sub printer. If you only need occasional 6x4 photos it’s probably the best option.

5 years ago with a reasonably priced Samsung colour laser scanner combi. No complaints. When I turn it on, it just prints.

The original mastodon post that kicked off this controversy: https://haunted.computer/@netspooky/110832978569741892

the original mastodon post

Unrelated to this post:

IMO it’s stuff like this, original content that shows up on Mastodon/Lemmy/Kbin first, that will get people to switch over.

Slow organic growth is nice. Keep making good quality content and people will shift over

JFC! HP sucks. Just buy a Brother laser printer used and never worry about it because it’s bulletproof and a workhorse.

And will work OOTB on Linux with CUPS. Easiest process ever.

I don’t know what CUPS is, but I had 3 major reservations about switching my barely functional computer to Linux:

Ive never worked in Linux before
My dive computer only uploads to proprietary software using a proprietary cable.
My Brother laser printer was working SO well wirelessly. It’s the first time I’ve ever not hated my printer

Turns out some amazing people made open source dive logging software so I can still download my dives.

And for printing, I meant to get around to setting it up, then one day I forgot and accidentally printed something and it just worked. I was so shocked that for a bit I assumed that reformatting the hard drive and changing operating systems must’ve somehow preserved my printer settings.

Start with something simple like Mint or Fedora. It’s quite easy to use.
Can you be more specific about the specific cable and software? Odds are it works, or it can work with some tinkering.
Brother printers work great in Linux in my experience.

I bought the printer when I was living in a place where the nearest library was 10 miles away and I only had access to a bus. I couldn’t afford a car.

If you print more than twice a decade, you can get that down to about 2 cents a page with a brother laser printer and third party cartridges.

Kinda baffling that anyone’s still buying HP - isn’t it common knowledge that they’re one of the worst printer brands?

They’re also the cheapest among well-known brands, so the average person buys these

Used to sell printers. It’s the old people 100%

HP has decent enterprise models. So office drones will have a positive image of HP. Also old people who have been out of touch with the market for 20 years or so.

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

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HP printer USB port covered with warning sticker in hopes you won't use it | Boing Boing(boingboing.net)

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