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·
        10 months ago

        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·
          10 months ago

          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.

        • frezik@midwest.social
          10·
          10 months ago

          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·
            10 months ago

            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·
            10 months ago

            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.

        • taladar@sh.itjust.works
          10·
          10 months ago

          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.

    • adhocfungus@midwest.social
      11·
      10 months ago

      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·
      10 months ago

      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·
      10 months ago

      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·
    10 months ago

    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·
      10 months ago

      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·
      10 months ago

      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
    23·
    10 months ago

    A Linux meme that’s somewhat critical of Linux?

    I wonder what the comments will be like…

  • puchaczyk@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    22·
    10 months ago

    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.

  • Galds@lemmy.world
    20·
    10 months ago

    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·
      10 months ago

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

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

  • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
    13·
    10 months ago

    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.

        • NotSteve_@lemmy.ca
          2·
          10 months ago

          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·
            10 months ago

            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·
        10 months ago

        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·
      10 months ago

      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.

  • NickwithaC@lemmy.worldEnglish
    12·
    10 months ago

    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.

    • dnick@sh.itjust.works
      1·
      10 months ago

      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·
    10 months ago

    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·
      10 months ago

      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·
        10 months ago

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

        • dnick@sh.itjust.works
          4·
          10 months ago

          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.