this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2023
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This has been happening for a few years now, yet, I don't know why people still keep recommending Brother. I guess not all models are affected by this? But it's likely only a matter of time though until they push it out to all printers.
What we really need is open hardware printers. I mean, if we can put together frikkin 3D printers on our own these days, surely putting together a regular 2D printer should be a much more easier task. Or maybe there just isn't any demand for 2D printers these days to justify such a project.
Alternatively: just use an online printing service, most of them even mail your printouts to you so you don't even need to step out of your home, and this will likely be a far cheaper option for casual users who rarely print stuff. Another option is local libraries, at least where I live, they allow you to take free printouts for upto 10 pages, and following that it's only 1c per page.
Open source would be amazing!
Yeah I'd go for an open source printer in a heartbeat. I'm so tired of this nonsense.
A printer being stupid (and Xerox's refusal to give him the source code so he could fix it) was precisely what led Stallman to start the open source software movement.
Same
Same what?
For your edification and posterity. This. What you just wrote. I totally agree. Like a chef serving a bowl of stew, you stuck your ladel into my brain and from my incoherent abstract thoughts were able to form the exact sentiment of what it is I was feeling. Down to a decimal of a decimal, more perfectly than I ever could have iterated, you captured the essence of every nuance I experienced relating to the subject matter. No words could portray the awe I felt knowing that somebody shared the exact same thought process as me. Not only that, but with the ability to articulate in such a refined manner the depth of said thought process. No words could describe that feeling. Except one. This.
I think Brother is typically recommended because their laser printers aren't anti-consumer bullshit, and are generally well built and supported.
* weren't
At least as of three years ago, even their laser printers have started being subject to enshittification.
Eg: https://old.reddit.com/r/printers/comments/s9b2eg/brother_mfc_firmware_update_nongenuine_toner_now/
And seems to me that this has become even worse since then. See this comment from less than a month ago:
I'd love an open source 2d printer.
I imagine the hardest part would be engineering a sheet feeder (unless you use tractor feed paper, lol)