After one year of ownership and operation, I have finally properly configured my personal printer.

Posted by TxTechnician@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 27 comments

Fuck printers. Since I switched to linux I haven't had to think about them. They "just work". Until Kubuntu 23.04. Something went wrong and the printer was constantly hit/miss. Turns out the network settings on the device were configured for static for some protocols and DHCP for others. e.g. my DNS was set to NULL, etc. In my frustration I gave my new printer the name "Fuck Printers" I'm leaving it.

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27 Comments

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FireLucid@reddit

Leasing copiers with support is my favourite thing my current org has done. Also rolled out Papercut and after initial setup, everything is smooth and if something goes wrong outside an easy paperjam "we don't own the printer, there is a support phone number on the front".

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sryan2k1@reddit

We print roughly 25k pages a day in North America alone with a Ricoh managed fleet and Papercut. We have zero issues.

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dracotrapnet@reddit

Last year I needed to print a ups label. My photo inkjet had no ink so I dug out my old hp inkjet printer I had not used since I moved to windows again. I probably last used this thing on windows XP and had been using it with my linux machine the past few years. I moved so I stowed both the linux machine and the printer until now. I started looking for drivers. HP denies all existence of the printer. No drivers can be found. I guess, it's maybe 20 years old. I dug out the old linux laptop and booted it up, plugged in the hp printer and printed away. It's kind of silly.

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TheFluffiestRedditor@reddit

When most printers talk postscript, why TF do we even need drivers?

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nullbyte420@reddit

so they can tell you when you need to buy new ink and monitor everything you do

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TheFluffiestRedditor@reddit

Oh yes, the all pervasive monitoring. Can't get in the way of that. /s /s /s I also forget that not everybody has an ethernet-enabled printer, and thus has to suffer through printer-management tools. I'm far too used to them having a web-interface, or SNMP, which can be scraped for supply level monitoring and alerts.

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TxTechnician@reddit (OP)

30 years and Microsoft still can get "driverless" printers to work. Only reason mine was acting up is cuz the network config. Like 10% of the calls from my former job was to fix a windows driver problem.

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headcrap@reddit

Don't mind me and my LJ 4100N still churning out wood pulp maybe once a year.

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TheFluffiestRedditor@reddit

The older HP printers are grand. My ~10 year old HP 1518ni does me just fine too. Even better is that I disabled the low cartridge warnings and printed another thousand pages. It’s very nearly almost time to swap in a new black cartridge.

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nullbyte420@reddit

no man. they fucking sucked dick 10 years ago. 25 years ago, however. dot matrix printers, those worked pretty alright.

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TheFluffiestRedditor@reddit

Hey, I like sucking dick! or at least, I like my dick being sucked. Why is that an epithet ??? I loath dot-matrix printers. When they're working fine, they're great, but as soon as something slips - and it didn't take much for the paper feed to go a little bit out of alignment - they chomped down and wasted an entire ream of paper. They're only good for playing music through. or stripping for parts to make robotics inspired toys.

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sammnz@reddit

Thank canon

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limecardy@reddit

I think that’s an HP

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imrik_of_caledor@reddit

>Since I switched to linux I haven't had to think about them. They "just work". Speaking as a Windows guy i don't think i've ever come across anything on Linux in my career that just "works" Something breaks and there are roughly 49,295 different ways to fix it, most of which will break two more things...

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TxTechnician@reddit (OP)

Oh, that changed about 10 years ago. Linux is now as easy as mac or windows 11. Dont get me wrong. There's still Linux from scratch and arch. Pickup Kubuntu, or Mint. Mint is by far the easiest. Everything is plug n play. There's no installing drivers. For anything. The hardware is just matched with whatever is available in the repo for drivers. And it works. Except for Nvidia. Still a problem there. Just stick with an Intel based pc or amd and everything will work like it should.

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19610taw3@reddit

I have an older Dell laser printer. I think 1720? Had it 5 years now. I bought a new old stock imaging unit for it (still in the bag) and some 3rd party toner. It works for the three times a year I need to print. I will not print personal on a work printer.

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taxigrandpa@reddit

FUCK PRINTERS!

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Jumpstart_55@reddit

WITHOUT LUBE!!!!

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showyerbewbs@reddit

Lube is by far cheaper than printer ink

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TheFluffiestRedditor@reddit

Most things are.

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anonymousITCoward@reddit

Sounds painful for both parties =(

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Imhereforthechips@reddit

I worked with a foreigner who wrote drivers for HP drivers in the early 2000s. He was an asshole. Printers are assholes because of him. *Fin*

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ALadWellBalanced@reddit

I needed a printer during lockdown and purchased the cheapest piece of shit HP printer available. It took me over an hour just to get it to connect to my Windows PC. 400MB of a "driver and software" package that repeatedly failed. I fucking hated it. Last year I got a wireless Brother printer. Driver package was about 30MB, and it just magically works all the time. It sits in a hall closet in sleep mode, I print something and it wakes up, prints my stuff and then goes back to sleep. No muss no fuss.

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ARobertNotABob@reddit

One year ownership, eh? It'll fail outside Warranty any day now, then.

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TxTechnician@reddit (OP)

3 year warranty. Kyocera.

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ARobertNotABob@reddit

Nice. I used to work for them in their Mita days.

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tacotacotacorock@reddit

LPT: It's ALWAYS DNS.