They work better in Linux than Windows, not to mention backwards compatibility.

EDIT: I may be wrong about newest printer models, 2020 and above.

EDIT2: Hardware problems are an entirely different issue.

      • SpikesOtherDog@ani.social
        33·
        11 个月前

        I am wondering why there is no open framework for laser printing.

        There are a few parts that would have to be made out of sheet metal. The sides could be stamped for the same pattern. You then need a back and a cross section. One could theoretically make them from ABS, but ABS gets brittle with heat and the sides will shatter.

        One side of the printer is dedicated to running an ARM SOC. I’m not sure if the Arduino is up to the task, but it will need to control 3 motors, initiate a heating sequence, start a rasterizing laser, interpret a print job, communicate over network and USB, and monitor a bunch of sensors.

        The hardest parts will be obtaining print cartridges, rollers, and fusers. Designing a standard to run off a certain vendor’s hardware will be a pile of issues, and nobody will just start manufacturing hardware for a handful of hobbyist printers.

        Everything else is 3d printing, springs, and screws.

        • GTG3000@programming.dev
          19·
          11 个月前

          Well, cartridges, rollers, and fusers are the important bits that can’t easily be manufactured by hand. And that’s a big part of the price of the printer.

          You can’t really make them cheaper than mass-manufacture, and laser printers are already almost bulletproof from my experience.

        • taladar@sh.itjust.works
          10·
          11 个月前

          I am wondering why there is no open framework for laser printing.

          Besides the reasons already mentioned most people who would be interested in bleeding edge tinkering probably have moved on from paper at this point.

        • frezik@midwest.social
          10·
          11 个月前

          2d printers need to be a lot more precise. 300dpi means each dot is placed with less than a tenth of a mm, and that’s not even particularly impressive for a 2d printer. 3d printers get away with a lot more slop than that.

          That’s only talking about greyscale. Color requires precise alignment of the cartridges for at least 4 base colors (higher end photo printers have even more) , and the mix of those colors must be carefully controlled to get accurate output.

          • SpikesOtherDog@ani.social
            4·
            11 个月前

            Yeah, that is one of the big problems I was considering. Even monochrome at 300 DPI would be a problem. The imaging array and drum would need to be manufactured separately and installed as whole unit.

          • jas0n@lemmy.world
            1·
            11 个月前

            At least it only needs to be precise if the register is adjustable. You would need some tiny stepper motors right? I’m not familiar with how register is adjusted on desktop printers, but I know it can be.

    • adhocfungus@midwest.social
      11·
      11 个月前

      My cheap old 3D printer requires constant fiddling before and after every print, yet still fails probably half the time. I avoid printing things sometimes just because I don’t want to deal with it.

      I would still agree with you 100%. I hate my HP printer so much.

    • UnityDevice@startrek.website
      10·
      11 个月前

      My hp printer has worked perfectly and reliably with CUPS for years now. Just turn it on and print, works every time.
      Open source print drivers, baby! I still hate CUPS though.

    • Eldritch@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      11 个月前

      Seriously, one of the best ways to fix printer issues with windows. Is to buy a cheap raspberry pi zero or similar. And stick it in between as a print server. It solves so many random issues for both bad printer, firmwears and fucky windows behaviors

  • mlg@lemmy.worldEnglish
    35·
    11 个月前

    CUPS is absolutely amazing compared to windows printer drivers which had whole ass critical CVEs several times already.

    Even Apple uses CUPS

    • aard@kyu.de
      21·
      11 个月前

      CUPS is horrible, and also had its share of critical vulnerabilities. It is just better than the LPD mess we had before.

      It is not a Linux specific thing - it was developed when there still were a lot of UNIX variants around. Apple was a very early contributor, and had quite a bit of influence in making it successful.

    • c10l@lemmy.world
      11·
      11 个月前

      It’s no surprise Apple uses CUPS. They wrote it, after all.

      Edit: TIL Apple didn’t write CUPS themselves but they bought the company that did it pretty early in the game. Here’s a LWN article from the time, exposing some of the worries that came with the news of the acquisition: https://lwn.net/Articles/242020/

  • gmtom@lemmy.world
    22·
    11 个月前

    A Linux meme that’s somewhat critical of Linux?

    I wonder what the comments will be like…

  • Galds@lemmy.world
    20·
    11 个月前

    My printer used to integrate perfectly with windows 11. I was using some Ancient driver I found on some internet archive. windows updater found a new drive, now it’s a mess of different UIs to print or scan shit

    • 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      14·
      11 个月前

      There is a way to disable driver updates via Windows update.

      Do a rollback on the driver, should bring back the old driver.

  • puchaczyk
    20·
    11 个月前

    With cups it’s pretty much painless on linux form me, though some distros have a very restrictive firewall configuration out of the box, so you have to whitelist it before using. Not too complicated, but can be very frustrating for new users who never touched a firewall before.

  • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
    13·
    11 个月前

    Printers are pretty plug’n’play these days, at least until something technical goes wrong. Getting exactly what you want on paper can be pretty tough, though. I wrote an entire printing stack from scratch for an embedded system, but that was for a very specific set of models from a single manufacturer. It actually worked every time, especially when there were errors and warnings, but it took actual effort.

  • NickwithaC@lemmy.worldEnglish
    12·
    11 个月前

    Stop printing.

    Honestly who NEEDS a printer anymore? We’ve moved on from printing out driving directions from MapQuest and burning our own DVD collections. We should ditch home printers and only use online printing services whenever you want something physical so it’s made nicely by someone who knows what they’re doing.

        • NotSteve_@lemmy.ca
          2·
          11 个月前

          I don’t own a Mac outside of my work laptop. Like OP said in another reply, it’s likely because vendors pre-configure the system to work out of the box on Mac OS.

          It’s just my anecdotal experience but writing off my comment as me justifying a purchase (that I haven’t made) is just silly and lazy discussion

          FWIW, I use Linux on all my personal machines

          • FuglyDuck@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            11 个月前

            It’s just my anecdotal experience but writing off my comment as me justifying a purchase (that I haven’t made) is just silly and lazy discussion

            Somebody made that purchase, though. dismissing the cost point for apple products because you didn’t personally fork over is… amusing. Also, most vendors configure for windows, aka the OS with the largest market share of desktop computing devices. Some vendors (like epson), who cater to photography or graphic design will also ensure it works in Mac, but as noted elsewhere, the drivers for the printers in MacOS and linux are the same- CUPS. if printer compatibility is what you were looking for, you got taken for a ride. (this is not to say there aren’t valid reasons for living in Apple’s walled garden…there are… it’s just printer hardware isn’t one of them)

      • NightAuthor@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        11 个月前

        I learned that the CUPS config on Mac, at least as of about a year ago, was set to save a copy of everything ever printed to an obscure directory on the machine. Was discussed in relation to setting up a secure encryption scheme where you print out your keys, wouldn’t want something like that just hanging out for any malware to come gobble up.

    • 0x4E4F@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      8·
      11 个月前

      It used zeroconf/bonjur out of the box when no one else used it (or had to do some serious configs in order to get it working), that’s why. And, of course, since it’s the second most used OS other than Windows, printer manufacturers configured avahi/zeroconf/bonjur out of the box on their printers.

    • dnick@sh.itjust.works
      1·
      11 个月前

      Brother printers were the last straw in throwing away they last inkjet I ever hope to own.

      Want to scan something into your computer, you say? Sorry, can’t do that because you’re low on magenta!

      No idea if their laser printers try the same crap, because I avoided that brand when it came to picking one out, but holy crap what an off-putting experience.

  • variants@possumpat.ioEnglish
    11·
    11 个月前

    My printer has to go through like 5 power cycles for it to even detect its ink cartridges. I guess thats what i get for taking the ewaste printer from the office

    • sebinspace@lemmy.world
      6·
      11 个月前

      Atleast it was free? I did the same thing, took office salvage. I’ll be replacing it soon with a laser printer.

      • lseif@sopuli.xyz
        1·
        11 个月前

        a free printer is always awesome, but youll mostly spend money on ink anyway

        • dnick@sh.itjust.works
          4·
          11 个月前

          A free printer might be awesome if it’s laser…a free ink jet printer is like saying you got stabbed ‘for free’. I mean, yeah, it was free.