HP printer USB port covered with warning sticker in hopes you won't use it | Boing Boing
stopthatgirl7@kbin.social to 
boingboing.net
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 …
You are viewing a single comment
After being in IT and software development for over 25 years, the only printer brand I bother with any more is Brother. It's unbelievable how much better they are than everyone else. No nonsense drivers and they're not constantly trying to force you to buy expensive ink.
From a repair standpoint, Brother are definitely the best option (that I know of). I do authorised repair work for them, and their support guides, technical support team and range of spare parts is absolutely amazing. The biggest problem I see is aftermarket toner wrinkling up the fuser of laser models, but that's not like it's something Brother's introduced to be anti-competitive slime bags.
I've got a second-hand HL-5370DW (from 2009~) that's been through the wringer of a medical practice - I still use it to print without any issue, despite the Web UI insisting that all the non-toner consumables need to be replaced immediately.
People complain about them supposedly having DRM now or whatever but, to be frank, the fact that I can just click "print" and it actually prints makes it miles ahead by default. My printer actually functions now so I can't say I have any regrets.
.... what?