Despite all the shitty things manufacturers (especially printer manufacturers have done), actually using printers has gotten so much easier.
A few years ago you had to sacrifice a goat under a blue moon while reciting the installation instructions in backwards Latin to add a printer to a computer.
Now people can log into the Wi-Fi at my house on their phone for the first time and immediately click “Print” on their phone, pick a printer, and it just fucking works.
No special apps, no drivers, no “have disk” bullshit.
reminder that printers being absolutely dogshit garbage is what gave rise to the free software movement, richard stallman was so sick of dealing with printers that he wrote his own software for it.
printers being awful is a big part of why linux exists, which powers most of the web.
They really were the worst back then.
Despite all the shitty things manufacturers (especially printer manufacturers have done), actually using printers has gotten so much easier.
A few years ago you had to sacrifice a goat under a blue moon while reciting the installation instructions in backwards Latin to add a printer to a computer.
Now people can log into the Wi-Fi at my house on their phone for the first time and immediately click “Print” on their phone, pick a printer, and it just fucking works.
No special apps, no drivers, no “have disk” bullshit.
reminder that printers being absolutely dogshit garbage is what gave rise to the free software movement, richard stallman was so sick of dealing with printers that he wrote his own software for it.
printers being awful is a big part of why linux exists, which powers most of the web.