HP printer USB port covered with warning sticker in hopes you won't use it | Boing Boing

stopthatgirl7@kbin.social to Technology@lemmy.world – 800 points – HP printer USB port covered with warning sticker in hopes you won't use it | Boing Boing
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HP wants you to print things through its cloud service, wherein you pay a subscription fee for ink and your usage is routed through its servers. To encourage you to do this, it covers the USB port …

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I don't know what CUPS is, but I had 3 major reservations about switching my barely functional computer to Linux:

  1. Ive never worked in Linux before
  2. My dive computer only uploads to proprietary software using a proprietary cable.
  3. My Brother laser printer was working SO well wirelessly. It's the first time I've ever not hated my printer

Turns out some amazing people made open source dive logging software so I can still download my dives.

And for printing, I meant to get around to setting it up, then one day I forgot and accidentally printed something and it just worked. I was so shocked that for a bit I assumed that reformatting the hard drive and changing operating systems must've somehow preserved my printer settings.

  1. Start with something simple like Mint or Fedora. It's quite easy to use.

  2. Can you be more specific about the specific cable and software? Odds are it works, or it can work with some tinkering.

  3. Brother printers work great in Linux in my experience.

While your advice is sound, I think you might not have read @jrubal1462's comment in full. They already installed Linux, found FOSS alternatives for the proprietary dive software and their printer, to their shock, worked OOTB.