this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2025
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Oh my 10+ year old printer is still on its original set of cartridges, or maybe they've had at most one replacement set.
The previous one, which also lasted several years but had to be replaced because there were no Windows 7 drivers. That had I believe one set of replacement cartridges over like 6 or 7 years.
I have no idea what the hell is going on, it's like I've been blessed with top 0.0001% printer luck as a stat. But like I said, I don't intend to tempt faith and try again if this one needs new cartridges or it stops working altogether. If in a few years we discover that in this (or worse, next) decade kids STILL need to print a bunch of bullshit for school instead of emailing or submitting things via like moodle or something, it'll probably be a laser and probably Brother, as it seems this article was a bit hasty and apparently they're sitll good?
I know a lot of people who use and like brother printers. Years ago the go to was HP, then it was Xerox for a while when they had decent small format printers, but they seem to have gone back to their roots of large multi function printers for the most part and priced themselves out of most markets. They're still good, but you pay for the name.
Toshiba's printing division was absorbed by Xerox, no help there. Dell..... Has printers? I guess?
Brother is kind of the stand out. Everything else you can buy as a consumer is either HP, which went completely nuts on the whole "genuine" printer ink/toner, which is why a lot of people ran away screaming. The quality of the printers declined as they tried to force people into, what is basically printer ink as a service. Stupid.
But yeah. Bother is a decent mix of functional, affordable, and being low on the bullshit of using a printer. .... That is, as long as the article isn't a sign of things to come....
I'm hoping that by the time I need a replacement for what I have right now, there will be something open source.... Cries for an open alternative to the current printer market have been ongoing pretty much anytime printers are mentioned. I expect someone is, or will be developing something to the effect of an open source hardware printer.
Yeah the printer I have back home is an older HP, just old enough that they don't sell you an ink subscription yet, but new enough to have drivers for newer Windows versions. Of course, I've even got my mom away from Windows, so it no longer matters, but 10-15 years ago when we bought the thing, it was a bit more important, as I wasn't using Linux full time yet and my mom was using Windows still too. Now she's using my old thicc Macbook Pro till I either get her something with Linux on it, or a used M1 Air.