Is it time to retire the scanner ?

[Polytropon]

On Sun, 23 Oct 2016 08:47:25 +0000, Gerard Seibert wrote:
> On Sun, 23 Oct 2016 00:41:00 +0200, Polytropon stated:
> 
> > Few months ago, I met a HP Laserjet 4000 which "Windows 10" did
> > not support anymore (and couldn't even detect it). There is no
> > support from HP anymore, and the built-in drivers don't work
> > (print jobs just disappear). Solution: HP universal PCL driver,
> > much slower, but works. :-)
> 
> I just did a 2 second search and found this.
> 
> http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-hardware/windows-10-print-drivers-for-hp-laserjet-4000/4e9e0b45-6c2d-4753-ba52-755eb1bcc691
> 
> The clue here seems to be by your own admission that it "couldn't even
> detect it".

Nonsense. The printer in question is _networked_ and can be accessed
from various Linux and BSD systems, as well as from a "Windows Vista"
and a "Windows 7" laptop. I'm not talking about a parallel printer
(which, by the way, can be easily configured in CUPS and works almost
out of the box).



> I don't like or use HP products, and have no direct access to the model
> you named. You might want to investigate further why your printer is
> not being detected, etcetera.

The printer, as I said, is networked. "Windows 10" tries to detect it
two or three times (requires several minutes expensive time!) with no
result. From the list of generally available drivers, you cannot chose
a Laserjet 4000 because it's not on the list anymore. You need to
manually locate and download the HP universal PCL driver from the HP
support website.

In order to enter the IP (which is known), you need to click through
many dialog windows until you reach the one that looks like it comes
from "Windows '95" where you can manually configure the TCP/IP properties
of the printer. As soon as you got _that_ running, the printer will
work as expected.

So why support something fairly standard (PS and PCL) when you can
force people to waste time? ;-)

The whole procedure requires manual searching, reading (!) and also
downloading, lots of handholding and waiting time - valuable time
which the customer also has to pay for. It's not always easy to
explain that... and even worse, users cannot do this "jumping through
hoops" on their own, especially when they only speak german.

Thanks to that "user friendly"-ness, my job will be safe for a
loooong time. :-)

On FreeBSD, getting that printer to work in CUPS requires no big
efforts, you don't even need the PPD file. You even don't _need_
to use CUPS as you can print PS directly to the printer - no
driver needed, only a printer spooler. And this hasn't changed
in 10 years...



-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...