This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Anytime a company reduces the functionality of a device through software or firmware they should have to offer to buy back the hardware. The depreciation rate should be set at time of purchase so you know how much you get if they neuter it a year from now.
Why allow depreciation? You wouldn't have bought it with the reduced functionality, and it's going to cost you time and effort to remove it and replace it with something else. Inflation will reduce the value more than enough.
Yeah, but that means they don't get your money anymore! Think of the ~~profits~~ ~~shareholders~~ children!
Or they could like... just not be dicks and supply firmware updates without the lock-in, instead of having to trade off security to use your device however you want.
I must buy a printer soon. Thank you for reminding me to avoid HP products.
brother laser printer
This is the way. My brother printer is a hl2040, came out sometime in the early 2000s. It still prints. I've replaced the toner cartridge once since my Dad gave it to me back in 2016.
The other day I needed to print something out and this was after I had reinstalled linux.
Just fired right up, instantly recognized. Its one of the best pieces of hardware I own.
Are "brother" the nice guys at the moment?
relatively speaking
Laser printer and probably brother, it's worth the extra up front cost 10 fold
For an old color Dell Laser printer I got from a thrift store years ago I can find 4 color sets of toner for it for $40-60
brother is currently enshittifying right now.
Oh BROTHER, not this again.
On a more serious note, I've been all about brother printers for a few years now and couldn't be happier.
My current brother printer is a pile of shit.
I've been rockin my HL3170CDW for many years now. I have absolutely no issues with this printer, and I'll buy nothing else.
"Settles" lol the lawyers got their payout
I've never interpreted settling to imply lawyers don't get paid.
Lawyers get paid either way, but that's about the most that comes of it. Settling means no legal precedent has been set, so businesses can pull this bullshit again in the future
Even better, the whole HP printer is optional.
Well, here's the story: The old HP MuFu finally caved in, so dad was going to the local multimedia retailer. I told him to get a Brother Ecotank, since i have to support it. But the store only had HP MuFu, so he got a HP MuFu that is even worse than the old one, despite being a laser printer instead of an inkjet. And the f*cking toner cost a whole 140€.
Bullshittery aside, "HP Inc." Instead of just "HP" Is on the nose and has to be deliberate on the journalists behalf
The actual reason is because in 2015 "Hewlett Packard" split into two companies, one called HP, Inc, and one called HP Enterprise. The print and consumer PC business went to HPI, while the server and network hardware went to HPE. So, writing just "HP" could be interpreted as ambiguous.
Simple fix here, stop buying the companies that do this. I bought a brother printer and I won’t go back.
This was in the related articles: https://www.tomshardware.com/peripherals/printers/brother-denies-firmware-blocks-third-party-toner-and-ink-use
And I believe them. The reddit post in Rossman's video was 3 years old. I have personally installed and updated 5 Brother printers in the last year and they all still run on 3rd-party toner.
I do think it's pretty ridiculous that rossman of all people would not verify any of this before making a video about it. At least reach out to the company and ask them for a comment.
That sucks, I bought mine a few years ago and haven’t had any issues yet. 🤞
I bought a 15 year old second-hand Brother laser printer - works like a charm, operates under both Windows and Linux, still has all the spare parts you can think of readily available, and you can just load any toner into the official cartridge to use it again, and again, and again.
Love it. Simple, dirt cheap, just works and does it well.
Sometimes I wonder why there's no DIY Paper printer after seeing so...much shit in Printer Company ?
We had advance DIY 3D Printer that can made various objects with various size and materials and yet there's no DIY Paper printer until now
I have an epson eco tank. No more ink cartridges.
What about printing head replacement?
From my experience, those last years. But they are indeed a bit expensive... I have had my eco tank for the last 5 years, only had to replace the b/w printer head after around 4 thousand prints, and I'm almost sure it was my own fault for using expired low-quality ink that I had bought in bulk for super cheap.
As someone who's worked on printer firmware before, it makes me really sad that a company can get away with making a consumer decide between getting access to any of the actually useful changes that engineers — who have no say over ink cartridge policy — put effort towards making the best product they could, or not having said ink cartridge policies forced on them.
HP is like, "enjoy the security vulnerabilities"
Still not interested in a fucking printer.
