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HP misreads room, awkwardly brags about its “less hated” printers | Opinion: HP's printer business practices have infuriated users for years. (arstechnica.com)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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HP misreads room, awkwardly brags about its “less hated” printers | Opinion: HP's printer business practices have infuriated users for years.::Opinion: HP's printer business practices have infuriated users for years.

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[–] [email protected] 85 points 11 months ago (3 children)

I'm copying my comment from an earlier thread on the same subject.

Tl:Dr If you want to be less hated, make a good product.

I was asked to set up an HP printer earlier this week. It was connected by a USB cable. It stopped printing after a few pages.

HP wants the end user to download their app to use the printer. The printer also has to be set up using an Ethernet or Wi-Fi connection. I'd already tried to connect it to Wi-Fi using the button on the printer, but it just said "Er" & blinked some other lights. The HP website specifically says that the printer cannot be used with just a USB cable.

I was confident I could have got it to connect to Wi-Fi and downloaded the app, but it was too much of a problem just to be able to print.

I had a Brother printer moved into its place. There haven't been any other printing issues.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 11 months ago

Definitely recommend brother. No fuss, just works.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

I have an HP laser printer at work. When you run out of paper it tells you to load paper. Fair enough. After you load the paper, it asks you which type of paper you loaded, as if people change the paper they put in their printer. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. So, if you just hit okay like with every other printer that has stopped because it ran out of paper, you get sent down this rabbit hole of printer settings displayed on a screen that is barely big enough to show the options given, to be navigated by some poor user who just wants his report.

You can skip all those steps if you ignore everything you've ever learned about loading paper into a printer in the middle of a print job, and just hit the 'x' button. No, it doesn't cancel the job like on every other printer in the world, it just keeps the paper settings you've been using for the last 5 years.

I also have a Brother laser printer at home.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I inherited an older (2012) black and white compact HP laser. Has wifi.

Was a bit of a pita getting wifi setup. Had to use HP software first. Unlike my Canon which just showed up on the network.

Works great otherwise, surprisingly. Even back then I wouldn't have bought it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

I'm not too surprised at having to use HP software to set it up. The one I was assigned to set up wanted an HP app that requires an account. I'm pretty sure it would also need to be continuously connected to the Internet in order to print. That is utterly ridiculous!