Printer Makers' Ploys

Ellen Spertus writes "The San Francisco Chronicle has an interesting article on printer makers' ploys, such as lying about print speeds and selling printers with crippled cartridges. I'm sure that slashdot readers could identify more deceptions. Are there any printers that actually live up to the manufacturers' claims, ideally with Linux support?"

Lexmark Z33

[hattig]

I finally managed to get my cheap-ass USB Lexmark Z33 to work with Linux. This would have been simpler had CUPS not been running, as the Lexmark provided Linux drivers are for LPD only... it wasn't the simplest thing ever. The Lexmark GUI tool looks good though.

However, the printer is ass. The sheet feeder puts a dent in the paper at the bottom, and the paper goes in at an angle, and it only works one sheet at a time.

Never again will I listen to the wife when it comes to buying a printer. I wanted a black and white laser with a network connector. She was like "but that is expensive when you could get this one"...

Yes Xerox..

[Lumpy]

Xerox Phaser 850 color laser printers live up to all the claims, have the best linux support on the planet (Postscript printer... out of the box) and you wont get robbed blind on the ink prices....

granted... the printer is $3500.00USD Appx (I have 4 of them... 2 DX's and 2 N's so I got a good deal :-) but is the best thing cince sliced bread IF.... your users have 1/3rd of a brain... all of them have had ZERO trouble except for one receptionist who has done $1500.00 worth of damage to one printer in 2 seperate instances... and has caused another $400.00 in damage to it recently...

First she violently rips a jammed paper out of it... leaving a nice 3"X3" chunk stuck deep inside instead of using the obvious levers for releasing a jammed piece of paper.. then she loads the paper tray with inkjet lables that decided to adhere to the printing drum...after she ran the same label sheet through 5 times trying to get them looking just right and removing a few of the labels..

oh and finally she broke the high capacity paper drawer by "using her foot" to remove the paper guide.... because it wouldnt come off easily (you have to lift a tab first that is labelled in several languages..

so if you are stupid.... dont get a Phaser 850 printer... or if you have stupid workers in your office...

Printer Vendor Ploys . . .

[Dausha]

I'll say! Those vendors really know how to sell a piece of shiznet. I have an HP 845c that prints every single copy upside-down. In order to right them again I have to use the company photocopier.

Anybody have a patch for the CUPS driver that can fix this?

Perfectly Accurate

[cloudscout]

The speeds listed by the manufacturers are 100% accurate. It's just that those are the page-per-minute ratings for blank sheets of paper being pushed through the printer. It doesn't include any actual printing.

All about the marketing ploys

[delcielo]

I'll have to try something similar at home.

"Up to twelve inches long, depending on usage."

Right.....

[NDPTAL85]

....because by adding Linux support you obviously show that you are compassionate, like puppies, can sit still during a chick-flick marathon, are in touch with your inner female and are just an overall good person.

Re:i sold hp for a while...

[Anonymous Coward]

Ever heard of paragraphs? I am not reading your shit. It hurts my eyes.

Brother, oh brother...

[WWWWolf]

One of my relatives has some Brother color bubblejet. The computer runs Debian and it works perfectly.

There's one creepy thing about the printer: the noise it makes.

When it's powered up, it makes perfectly normal noises. When I print something, it makes perfectly normal noises. During printing, it prints and makes pretty dull noises. After printing, it makes perfectly normal noises. After powering down, it blinks lights and makes perfectly normal noises for a while and powers down.

You know, I'm well used to the fact that laser printers are quiet, dot matrix printers are NOISY, and bubblejets have distinct sounds. I have a HP Deskjet 600 here and it operates very predictably. I can listen to it. I can hear at which phase the printing is going. It makes different noises on different phases of printing. But that Brother thing... I never could tell what it was doing. It was *zweep*-*zweep*ing back and forth for no logical or illogical reason. It just made noises for the sake of making noises. I doubt I will ever learn to understand that printer.

Re:Resolution, ppm, Durability

[SillySlashdotName]

I will NEVER buy a lexmark, after helping 3 too many friends attempt to get theirs working and having them die shortly after.

If you were going to have them clean the heads in the bath tub you should have 1) told them NOT to get in the tub first, and 2) make sure the printer was unplugged first!

It's funny. Laugh.

My local printer is great!

[ghibli]

Our family has been using the same printer for over 30 years now. We have been very happy with their quality of work, and same-day service is provided for many smaller jobs. From business cards to wedding invitations to funeral programs, nothing beats a local, family-owned printer service.

True, cost is slightly higher that the Kinko's shop near the mall, but they know me by name and will deliver items to my job if needed.

My printer is retiring in December. He says his children don't have the skillset needed to operate or manage the business. If they cannot find a buyer, he will close shop and liquidate all assets.

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL PRINTER ! ! !

What does "Linux support" mean?

[El]

Just about every network printer now supports LPR, which is a lousy protocol but is the defacto Unix "standard." What more do you want -- CUPS support?