Printers and bluetooth are my go-to examples of clunky, broken standards. "Lets make a new version, but include legacy support which means nothing is truly fixed."
My Bluetooth speakers are worthless if I forget to turn off Bluetooth on my work computer and try using my personal computer first. Thankfully they are connected to an AirPlay enabled TV
Which is crazy because I'm not using ink right now due to the printer not working. I had an Epson I loved for years but it died and I couldn't find it again. Moved to a hp with 4,000 4.4 total star reviews and it has had nothing but issues currently it is being used as a paper weight since it has lost its scan and print functions.
Right, this will force you to buy a new printer and the ink will not be compatible with it from your old printer. This forces you to have to buy more ink and not be able to reuse any of the older ink.
Get a Brother, connect it to the WiFi router via RJ45, and Bob's your uncle.
My Linux PC sees it and it works without any extra work, including scanning.
My phone sees it and prints on it without a hitch.
My MacBook uses it without flaw.
Even my daughter's Windows gaming rig manages to work it!
The companies dont care about the quality just what makes the most money. Its mad this is still a thing but the need for printing has gladly died down a lot
>the need for printing has gladly died down a lot
This is a huge part of it. The average person no longer needs a printer now that we have smartphones and QR codes. Tons of businesses are going paperless.
There's no reason to spend money perfecting a technology that's going out of style.
Printers and staplers are hated. Staplers are small and hide, printers are large and refuse to work. It's not the technology's fault. If they were loved more, none of this would happen.
Fun fact: Printer companies employ large teams of service personnel who regularly invent new error messages and send them to printers world-wide over the internet in order to entertain customers. The dedication these companies have for their customers is not appreciated enough.
Get an old, used, black and white laser printer. USB wire connection only - no wifi or bluetooth. No "all in one" or ink cartriges, no scanner, no fax. HP and Brother are good brands (for those vintage workhorses). Toner cartridges are still widely available, cheap, and last for years. On occasions that you need something printed in colour go to a printing place. Mine is... twenty years old now (!) and has never had a problem. It's outlived numerous inkjet printers and a colour laser printer too. Everything else was a rip-off that stopped working for one reason or another.
I'm on year 4 with a B&W lazerjet (though it does have scan/copy ability). I can't claim it's perfect, but it has outlasted and required far less tinkering any other printer I have had.
Rarely used inkjets are a headache every single time you want to print. Maybe that's the genius of effective marketing. The cheapest option is specifically poorly suited for the folks who print the least (least likely to want to spend a lot). I'm not laughing, but at the same time, I'm sort of laughing.
It’s sadly because it’s easier for printer companies to make the same product over and over and make money on new printers and ink instead of making a better product that lasts. To make it worse companies can now disable your printer if you violate terms of service so no third party ink or repairs
Your off the shelf printers from your local electronic stores have reskinned software that's years old, it works well enough for the most part, until it doesn't then it's rubbish.
Your commercial printers like Roland, Mimaki, Epson, Mutoh have specialized software to run these $6000 and upwards printers and their software works pretty flawlessly. It's basically, you get what you pay for.
I work for a big company with multiple offices and one of those follow-me printing systems. I have never been able to print and the IT people can’t work it out.
God, I'd love to know. We have two at my work and every single day we have to take the tray out several times because it keeps telling us there's a paper jam despite no paper being jammed at all.
I bought a new refurbished computer to be able to use my fifteen year old printer- for the same price I got a computer and a trustworthy old printer that never breaks.
Printer technology has seen incremental improvements in connectivity like Wi-Fi, but reliability issues persist. Many printers still struggle with consistent performance, echoing frustrations from a decade ago.
Printers and bluetooth are my go-to examples of clunky, broken standards. "Lets make a new version, but include legacy support which means nothing is truly fixed."
Bluetooth works 95% of the time without a hitch. Printers are still working off tech that's 10 years out of date
My Bluetooth speakers are worthless if I forget to turn off Bluetooth on my work computer and try using my personal computer first. Thankfully they are connected to an AirPlay enabled TV
Because printer companies don't care about the printer. They make their money on ink
Which is crazy because I'm not using ink right now due to the printer not working. I had an Epson I loved for years but it died and I couldn't find it again. Moved to a hp with 4,000 4.4 total star reviews and it has had nothing but issues currently it is being used as a paper weight since it has lost its scan and print functions.
Right, this will force you to buy a new printer and the ink will not be compatible with it from your old printer. This forces you to have to buy more ink and not be able to reuse any of the older ink.
LaserJet is the way
Get a Brother, connect it to the WiFi router via RJ45, and Bob's your uncle. My Linux PC sees it and it works without any extra work, including scanning. My phone sees it and prints on it without a hitch. My MacBook uses it without flaw. Even my daughter's Windows gaming rig manages to work it!
The companies dont care about the quality just what makes the most money. Its mad this is still a thing but the need for printing has gladly died down a lot
>the need for printing has gladly died down a lot This is a huge part of it. The average person no longer needs a printer now that we have smartphones and QR codes. Tons of businesses are going paperless. There's no reason to spend money perfecting a technology that's going out of style.
I only buy direct wire connection printers they work every time.
Hero for saying this cause I think it all the time. WHY THE FUCK WONT YOU PRINT?! I wanna toss it out the window sometimes.
Printers and staplers are hated. Staplers are small and hide, printers are large and refuse to work. It's not the technology's fault. If they were loved more, none of this would happen. Fun fact: Printer companies employ large teams of service personnel who regularly invent new error messages and send them to printers world-wide over the internet in order to entertain customers. The dedication these companies have for their customers is not appreciated enough.
I always buy HP. My Laserjet is >20 years and still works.
Get an old, used, black and white laser printer. USB wire connection only - no wifi or bluetooth. No "all in one" or ink cartriges, no scanner, no fax. HP and Brother are good brands (for those vintage workhorses). Toner cartridges are still widely available, cheap, and last for years. On occasions that you need something printed in colour go to a printing place. Mine is... twenty years old now (!) and has never had a problem. It's outlived numerous inkjet printers and a colour laser printer too. Everything else was a rip-off that stopped working for one reason or another.
I'm on year 4 with a B&W lazerjet (though it does have scan/copy ability). I can't claim it's perfect, but it has outlasted and required far less tinkering any other printer I have had. Rarely used inkjets are a headache every single time you want to print. Maybe that's the genius of effective marketing. The cheapest option is specifically poorly suited for the folks who print the least (least likely to want to spend a lot). I'm not laughing, but at the same time, I'm sort of laughing.
It’s sadly because it’s easier for printer companies to make the same product over and over and make money on new printers and ink instead of making a better product that lasts. To make it worse companies can now disable your printer if you violate terms of service so no third party ink or repairs
Your off the shelf printers from your local electronic stores have reskinned software that's years old, it works well enough for the most part, until it doesn't then it's rubbish. Your commercial printers like Roland, Mimaki, Epson, Mutoh have specialized software to run these $6000 and upwards printers and their software works pretty flawlessly. It's basically, you get what you pay for.
I work for a big company with multiple offices and one of those follow-me printing systems. I have never been able to print and the IT people can’t work it out.
Print has been around since the 1400s and it's still terrible.
Can we ask the same question about docks? Why won’t anyone fix those damn things
God, I'd love to know. We have two at my work and every single day we have to take the tray out several times because it keeps telling us there's a paper jam despite no paper being jammed at all.
As someone that deals with Xerox a lot... This really hits hard.
The last 15 years, I only buy laser printers, even for printing photos on photo paper. No regrets.
I bought a new refurbished computer to be able to use my fifteen year old printer- for the same price I got a computer and a trustworthy old printer that never breaks.
Because it doesn't need to be good. People still buy them when they're bad.
My guy, this is by design. They want them to fail.
Obligatory Brother laser printer recommendation comment
Printer technology has seen incremental improvements in connectivity like Wi-Fi, but reliability issues persist. Many printers still struggle with consistent performance, echoing frustrations from a decade ago.