• TrontheTechie@infosec.pub
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    1 year ago

    I had to buy a printer recently. I intentionally went through all the information i could to find out which manufacturers pull this trick and bought their competitor instead.

      • TrontheTechie@infosec.pub
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        1 year ago

        I didn’t have a wide array of choices, as I had a selection of printers in front of me at a brick and mortar store, but I went with the Brother HL-L2325DW. They offer a subscription (I don’t mind an optional convenience and monetization method) but they don’t disable your printer or force you to buy it.

        It came with a full sized toner cartridge at about 3,000 pages compared to the “demo cartridge” most printers will give you with the unit, and it worked out of the Box with CUPS and Linux, and was supported by Brother for Windows and Mac.

        Wildly enough there was a Linux utility too from Brother, but I didn’t need it.

        • EdibleFriend@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Brother is the only non-evil company when it comes to printers. Every other printer company would literally stomp on your puppy given the chance.

        • McBinary@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          +1 for Brother HL printers. 2 toner bars got me through 3 years of nursing school.
          If I need something printed in color, I’ll just let a professional do it.

  • x4740N@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’m wondering if there’s a open source firmware for printers like openwrt for routers

    Edit: typo

    • Moreless@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Who would spend their free time writing printer drivers/software?

      It’d make more sense to work on software for a paperless world

  • pizzahoe@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Can’t believe this is legal… is there seriously a subscription model even if you’ve bought a printer? Does this happen with all hp printers?

    • aelwero@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      It’s worse than it sounds… You’re not actually paying for ink, you’re paying for pages, in a similar context to how you used to pay for minutes for your cell phone.

      A buck a month gets you 10 pages printed, 100 pages printed a month sets you back $6/mo, and so on.

      The ink is shipped “free” when your cartridge runs out, and naturally, they figured out how to increase the ink capacity in the carts to be much higher than the ones they sell, so shipping a cart out will be much less frequent if you’re ponying up for each page you print.

      Odds are it’ll be cheaper over the life of your printer as long as you’re a member of the residual income brigade…

      • exohuman@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Jeez… with that you might as well do as I do and just go to Staples and print from there. No need to buy a machine or paper and it’s cheap.

  • Facelikeapotato@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    I have a 12 year old laser printer that I got for $3 from a garage sale and I’m riding this baby into the ground. Every year or two I get some generic toner for about $15.

    • SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Exactly. I wish the Soviets made laser printers because then I’d get one from a car boot sale and it would probably outlive my grandchildren

    • CaptPretentious@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Just buy from Brother. They’re not over priced, reliable, and don’t pull with nickel and dime shit.

      I’ve had my laser printer for 16+ years without issue. And everyone I suggested get a Brother as well have all been happy.

      • EtherealMoon @lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I updated my Brother printer just for it to decide to stop detecting my off-brand ink. They’re not free from bs.