Hi all,

I currently have an HP DeskJet 2600 series printer, an inkjet with
cartridges. It's been working fine but I really don't like the fact that because of the Digital Restrictions Management third party cartridges are being blocked and that even original cartridges stop working at some point
if I refill them.

So I was thinking about an ink tank printer, again from HP because they have stellar GNU/Linux free software driver support -- I had used a Brother many years ago, but its GNU/Linux driver was proprietary, therefore not included
in the repositories. And when they stopped updating the driver package on
their website, the machine became a paperweight.

My main concerns are price, not being tied to a particular vendor for the
nk and durability. It doesn't have to fax (I already have a V.92 modem), do double sided printing or be fast. What would you advise? What would you say about an HP Ink Tank 415 AIO?

Thanks in advance.

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Re: Ink Tank Printers, Pro/Con
By: Shanen to All on Sat Jun 03 2023 08:10 pm

Hi all,

I currently have an HP DeskJet 2600 series printer, an inkjet with cartridges. It's been working fine but I really don't like the fact that because of the Digital Restrictions Management third party cartridges are being blocked and that even original cartridges stop working at some point if I refill them.

be like me:

throw away your printers.
print at work or print at the ups store or some place else.

save money, don't have to deal with all the bullshit about having a printer.

after having a bunch of those all in one printers and have them break or just be too expensive i'm much happier now.
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Re: Ink Tank Printers, Pro/Con
By: Shanen to All on Sat Jun 03 2023 08:10 pm

Hi all,

I currently have an HP DeskJet 2600 series printer, an inkjet with cartridges. It's been working fine but I really don't like the fact that because of the Digital Restrictions Management third party cartridges are being blocked and that even original cartridges stop working at some point if I refill them.

So I was thinking about an ink tank printer, again from HP because they have > stellar GNU/Linux free software driver support -- I had used a Brother many
years ago, but its GNU/Linux driver was proprietary, therefore not included in the repositories. And when they stopped updating the driver package on their website, the machine became a paperweight.

My main concerns are price, not being tied to a particular vendor for the
nk and durability. It doesn't have to fax (I already have a V.92 modem), do double sided printing or be fast. What would you advise? What would you say about an HP Ink Tank 415 AIO?

Thanks in advance.

... MultiMail, the new multi-platform, multi-format offline reader!
--- MultiMail/Linux v0.52
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I have some insider knowledge from the HP printing team.

Modern HP printers will work under linux with HPLIP but most of them are supposed to work with a proprietary plugin. I have managed to print to some printers that are not supported unless you use proprietary plugins using some netcat tricks, but the bottom line is you are supposed to use their closed drivers.

Support from their closed drivers is quite ok, though.

At $job we have a fleet of HP Laserjets M402N. If you print a lot, you save money in the long run. You can also use pirate cartridges.

NO experience with Ink Tanks.

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Re: Ink Tank Printers, Pro/Con
By: Shanen to All on Sat Jun 03 2023 08:10 pm

So I was thinking about an ink tank printer, again from HP because they

I decided to stop using inkjet printers a long time ago and bought a laser printer and haven't regretted it. One thing I didn't like about inkjet printers is that if you don't use them for too long, the ink can dry up, so you'd have to buy new ink before you can print again. A laser printer can sit for a while and still be able to print. I don't print much, but I feel like it's handy to have when needed. My printer is also one of the 3-in-1 scan/copy/print units, and it's handy to be able to scan documents when needed. Sometimes I also need to sign sonething, and if they don't support E-signing, I'd have to print it, sign it by hand, and then scan the signed version and send that back to them.

Nightfox

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Shanen wrote to All <=-

So I was thinking about an ink tank printer, again from HP because they have stellar GNU/Linux free software driver support -- I had used a Brother many years ago, but its GNU/Linux driver was proprietary, therefore not included in the repositories. And when they stopped
updating the driver package on their website, the machine became a paperweight.

I recently bought a Brother HL-L2370DW, one of the slightly
higher-priced black and white lasers. I chose it because its printer
language is PCL6 instead of the proprietary Brother language, I figured
if I wanted to print to it from Linux any PCL PPD would work.

Brother also advertised one of those infinity ink deals like HP, where
you pay by the page, they send you a toner when you run low, and you
have to have your printer connected to the internet to send telemetry
back to them at all times. No thanks.

RIP my Samsung ML-2525W, which was a trusty workhorse for 15 years. A
toner blew up inside of it, and it'd only pring black pages after that.

My main concerns are price, not being tied to a particular vendor for
the nk and durability. It doesn't have to fax (I already have a V.92 modem), do double sided printing or be fast. What would you advise?
What would you say about an HP Ink Tank 415 AIO?

Sounds like HP is a pass in general, how about the Epson tank printers?



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MRO wrote to Shanen <=-

after having a bunch of those all in one printers and have them break
or just be too expensive i'm much happier now.

I have a Canon MX922 inkjet MFP with a sheet feeder, just had to print
out an 85-page color document, and it *just* *worked*. I didn't need to
change any colors, thought I would.

A third-party replacement kit with 3 of each color tank is $22 on
Amazon, which should be good for around 900 pages.

There's a ton of crap out there, but some gems - unfortunately none of
them from HP these days.



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Arelor wrote to Shanen <=-

At $job we have a fleet of HP Laserjets M402N. If you print a lot, you save money in the long run. You can also use pirate cartridges.

A Friend of mine closed down one of his offices and when he heard my
little Samsung printer had died, offered one of his office printers. I
went over there and saw a mint-condition HP Laserjet 4050 with 2 trays.
Alas, it was a little too big for my office space, but it would have
been the last printer I ever needed. They're from the Golden Age of HP,
in my opinion.

Aside: I managed desktop support for a large internet company a couple
of years back. When I hired a new batch of techs, we did a scavenger
hunt. One of the things the techs were asked to find was the oldest
printer on campus.

One person went to 2 buildings and 21 floors looking for printers and
printed test pages. He got the award for determination. Another tech
asked the printer team which printer had the most pages on it and he
looked it up in the web-based admin tool at his desk.



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poindexter FORTRAN wrote to Shanen <=-

@VIA: REALITY
@MSGID: <647DF512.5013.dove.hardware@realitycheckbbs.org>
@REPLY: <647C57A1.17785.dove-hlp@vert.synchro.net>
@TZ: c1e0
Subject: Re: Ink Tank Printers, Pro/Con
@MSGID: <647DF512.5013.dove.hardware@realitycheckbbs.org>
@REPLY: <647C57A1.17785.dove-hlp@vert.synchro.net>
@TZ: c1e0

Shanen wrote to All <=-

Brother also advertised one of those infinity ink deals like HP, where
you pay by the page, they send you a toner when you run low, and you
have to have your printer connected to the internet to send telemetry
back to them at all times. No thanks.

Ouch, indeed. Apparently HP models which end with an "e" must be connected at all times, fortunately in my country this offer doesn't exist (yet?). No instant ink for me, which is fine for the reasons you explained.

Sounds like HP is a pass in general, how about the Epson tank
printers?

Sometimes, you prefer the devil you already know. Like I said in a previous message, HP's GNU/Linux support is stellar (see <https://packages.trisquel.org/aramo/hplip>, it's even present in a
FSF approved fully free distribution). Epson's drivers seem to be
proprietary (see <https://github.com/endlessm/epson-inkjet-printer/blob/master/201207w/COPYING.EPSON>)
so I'm stuck with HP...

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Re: Ink Tank Printers, Pro/Con
By: Shanen to All on Sat Jun 03 2023 20:10:00

So I was thinking about an ink tank printer, again from HP because they have stellar GNU/Linux free software driver support -- I had used a Brother many years ago, but its GNU/Linux driver was proprietary, therefore not included in the repositories. And when they stopped updating the driver package on their website, the machine became a paperweight.

I have found the best option to be an HP Laser on a network interface for the best cross os/platform support, and higher capacity tonor cartridges. My current HP has been running for close to a decade, and the one before it for about 15 years or so. Unless you are printing a *LOT*, which is where many defer to Epson tank options afaik, no idea on Linux support.

My HP laser has worked without issue on Linux, Windows, MacOS and Android phones. Just my own $.02


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Re: Ink Tank Printers, Pro/Con
By: Nightfox to Shanen on Sun Jun 04 2023 12:25:52

printer and haven't regretted it. One thing I didn't like about inkjet printers is that if you don't use them for too long, the ink can dry up,

The last inkjet printer I used was a Canon around 2001, it was designed so badly back then, that you had to replace the separate print head, that only came with a set of new black+color cartridges... I don't print too much either, often months at a time, then a few documents, etc. Likewise went to an HP Laserjet from an auction (already used 6 years in a school setting) and that lasted me another 9 after... current printer is about 10yo and on it's second set of tonor cartridges after the ones that came with the printer.

Other than a single PDF I cannot seem to print from Linux, haven't had an issue... It always "just works"


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Re: Re: Ink Tank Printers, Pro/Con
By: poindexter FORTRAN to Arelor on Mon Jun 05 2023 07:13:00

little Samsung printer had died, offered one of his office printers. I went over there and saw a mint-condition HP Laserjet 4050 with 2 trays.

Man, would have loved that... Those things were absolute beasts in terms of reliability. I bought a couple models before that at 6yo from a school auction and it lasted another 9 years. If the jet direct card hadn't died, might still be using it... passed it to someone who didn't mind using a parallel cable. As I had wanted to go color anyway. My current hp color laser is now about a decade old with no issues.


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Tracker1 wrote to Shanen <=-

@VIA: TRN
@MSGID: <648C3CF8.1817.dove-hwswhelp@roughneckbbs.com>
@REPLY: <647C57A1.17785.dove-hlp@vert.synchro.net>
Re: Ink Tank Printers, Pro/Con
By: Shanen to All on Sat
Jun 03 2023 20:10:00

I have found the best option to be an HP Laser on a network interface
for the best cross os/platform support, and higher capacity tonor cartridges. My current HP has been running for close to a decade, and
the one before it for about 15 years or so. Unless you are printing a *LOT*, which is where many defer to Epson tank options afaik, no idea
on Linux support.

My HP laser has worked without issue on Linux, Windows, MacOS and
Android phones. Just my own $.02

Finally I opted for an HP Smart Tank 516. It was sold at a small discount,
is cheaper than a laser printer and is a *big* upgrade from using cartriges. Plus one more year of warranty in addition to the standard two years if you register at no cost.

A couple of days after I bought and set it up, a neighbor asked me (again)
for like 60 color pages. Previously this would have almost emptied
a cartridge, now the ink level didn't even blink. My only worry is with printheads but so far so good. I just wish CUPS had fewer bugs, but hey...

Also, how do you print from an Android phone? I saw HP had an application for that (at hpapp.com IIRC), but it requires you to send each and every file to
be printed to the mothership so this was a big no no for me.

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Re: Re: Ink Tank Printers, Pro/Con
By: Shanen to Tracker1 on Sat Jun 17 2023 04:37 pm

Also, how do you print from an Android phone? I saw HP had an application fo > that (at hpapp.com IIRC), but it requires you to send each and every file to > be printed to the mothership so this was a big no no for me. >

If you are talking about the HP Smart subsystem, I am told they made it using cheap asian labor and that the codebase sucks so much that, if you ever read it, you'd want to set your printer on fire.

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Re: Re: Ink Tank Printers, Pro/Con
By: Shanen to Tracker1 on Sat Jun 17 2023 16:37:00

Also, how do you print from an Android phone? I saw HP had an application for that (at hpapp.com IIRC), but it requires you to send each and every file to be printed to the mothership so this was a big no no for me.

Varies by application, but generally it's buried under the share icon and not all apps support it. I'm able to print directly. I did have the HP network thing setup, as well as google's chrome printer sharing (neither work now)... but when I'm on network I am able to print (mostly).

Like for Brave browser, I click the vertical elipsis menu, then the share button at the top, then have to scroll right on the second line and print is at the end. It's kind of buried though and definitely not obvious.


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Re: Ink Tank Printers, Pro/Co
By: MRO to Shanen on Sun Jun 04 2023 06:23 am

save money, don't have to deal with all the bullshit about having a printer.

I did the same thing and then I bought a Brother inkjet and ignore the toner warnings.

Now I don't need to deal with those miserable people at Staples.

:)


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Re: Ink Tank Printers, Pro/Co
By: Nopants to MRO on Wed Jul 12 2023 06:59 pm

Re: Ink Tank Printers, Pro/Co
By: MRO to Shanen on Sun Jun 04 2023 06:23 am

save money, don't have to deal with all the bullshit about having a printer.

I did the same thing and then I bought a Brother inkjet and ignore the toner warnings.

Now I don't need to deal with those miserable people at Staples.

i just print at work or at the ups store.
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Nopants wrote to MRO <=-

save money, don't have to deal with all the bullshit about having a printer.

I did the same thing and then I bought a Brother inkjet and
ignore the toner warnings.

An inkjet printer doesn't use toner. It uses...... ink.

Now I don't need to deal with those miserable people at Staples.

Good point there. I think the same people work at Office Depot.


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MRO wrote to Nopants <=-

save money, don't have to deal with all the bullshit about having a printer.

I did the same thing and then I bought a Brother inkjet and ignore the toner warnings.

i just print at work

Does your employer know that, and approves of it?

or at the ups store.

More expensive than just owning/using your own printer. But it probably
makes sense..... to you.


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Re: Ink Tank Printers, Pro/Co
By: Nopants to MRO on Wed Jul 12 2023 06:59 pm

I did the same thing and then I bought a Brother inkjet and ignore the toner warnings.

Now I don't need to deal with those miserable people at Staples.

I used to use an inkjet printer, but I don't print very often, and I found that by the time I wanted to print something again, the ink would be all dried up. I decided to buy a laser pritner - They do cost more up front, but toner doesn't dry out, so you can always print whenever you want.

The one I bought also does scanning and copying - I've actually found the scanner convenient for scanning in receipts and other documents that I want to save and be able to easily open them up on my computer to see them or email them to someone if I need to. My wife has also used it a couple times when working from home - sometimes there will be a document she needs to sign, and since they don't have an online signing system, she'll print it, sign it, and then scan the signed copy to send back.

Nightfox

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Re: Re: Ink Tank Printers, Pr
By: Gamgee to Nopants on Thu Jul 13 2023 07:41 am

Nopants wrote to MRO <=-

save money, don't have to deal with all the bullshit about having a print

I did the same thing and then I bought a Brother inkjet and
ignore the toner warnings.

An inkjet printer doesn't use toner. It uses...... ink.

Now I don't need to deal with those miserable people at Staples.

Good point there. I think the same people work at Office Depot.

... Why did kamikaze pilots wear helmets?

You can ignore the toner warnings because the inkjets don't have toner cartirdges.

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Re: Ink Tank Printers, Pro/Co
By: Nightfox to Nopants on Thu Jul 13 2023 10:08 am

Re: Ink Tank Printers, Pro/Co
By: Nopants to MRO on Wed Jul 12 2023 06:59 pm

I did the same thing and then I bought a Brother inkjet and ignore the toner warnings.

Now I don't need to deal with those miserable people at Staples.

I used to use an inkjet printer, but I don't print very often, and I found t u can always print whenever you want.

The one I bought also does scanning and copying - I've actually found the sc
to. My wife has also used it a couple times when working from home - somet

Nightfox

I used to volunteer on the board for a non-profit organization. I bought
them a multi-function laser printer/ copier/ scanner. An 8000 page toner cartridge cost about the same as a 2000 page cartridge.

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Nopants wrote to MRO <=-

I did the same thing and then I bought a Brother inkjet and ignore the toner warnings.

Now I don't need to deal with those miserable people at Staples.

I'm all in on Amazon for toner and ink cartridges. I picked up an inket
MFP that takes individual color tanks, and found a third party that sells 3
of each for $18 on Amazon - works great. It's the first time I've ever
not thought about ink costs when printing with an inkjet printer. it
lets me scan to PDF or scan photos, too.

For big black and white jobs I have a cheap Brother laser printer -
third-party toner is also cheap.



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MRO wrote to Nopants <=-

i just print at work or at the ups store.

One of my first jobs was at a law firm where every piece of paper
printed needed a client code, and unbilled copies were scrutinized,
HEAVILY.

The computer room was on another floor, and sitting in the room,
unappreciated, was an HP Laserjet that wasn't connected to the billing
system. I appreciated the hell out of it.



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