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List:       gentoo-desktop
Subject:    [gentoo-desktop] Re: Printer/scanner/copier
From:       Duncan <1i5t5.duncan () cox ! net>
Date:       2005-01-03 9:33:03
Message-ID: pan.2005.01.03.09.33.02.710168 () cox ! net
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Lindsay Haisley posted <20050102200054.GB1721@fmp.com>, excerpted below, 
on Sun, 02 Jan 2005 14:00:54 -0600:

> Thus spake Duncan on Sun, Jan 02, 2005 at 06:08:52AM CST
>> Right now, I'm looking at a $200 combo unit, HP.
> 
> My experience with such combo units in general is that they do none of
> their several jobs as well as single-function units do, and often have
> more limitations and require more specialized software than do stand-alone
> units. My wife has an HP Laserjet 3100 scanner/printer/copier/fax in her
> office running on her Win98 box, and I'm totally unable to access it via
> our LAN, apparently by the design of HP, according to their docs.  If
> she'd paid more, she could have gotten one that could have been seen
> through the network as a share on her computer.

That had been my earlier experience with combination appliances as well,
certainly on MSWormOS. However, the printer market has changed quite a bit
recently, and I no longer do MSWormOS (or proprietaryware in general)
period, so I think/hope some of the old rules don't apply any more.

In terms of the general printer and scanner markets, technology has
progressed over the last few years to the point where resolution and the
like is nearly equal across the entire product range.  Lower priced ones,
however, tend to be deliberately crippled so their page-per-minute is
lower, and deliberately designed to suck ink, since that's where the money
is on them.  OTOH, differentiating the mid and high consumer end in terms
of hardware features has become increasingly difficult, until
functionality is combined, at which point there's a whole new feature set
that can be exploited to add value.  With a combo unit, all the fancy
features of copiers become possible, along with a few printer-side
features that tend to jack up the price out of practical printer-only
range, like direct solid-state-media interfaces and computer-free display
(some have built-in mini-screens now for the purpose, selection, and
manipulation of images, formerly only possible with a graphics software
suite on the computer.  Thus, while combo units were formerly rather rinky
dink limited option affairs, they've now become an important element of
added value in a market where the single-use hardware has become so cheap
it's hard to differentiate, meaning rather than rinky-dink feature now,
it's a feature designed to appeal to the folks that would have formerly
been buying two products, with additional features on the combined product
available to make it worth a higher cost than buying the two separate
individual appliances would be.

In terms of deliberate crippling of software and drivers, again to
differentiate between low and mid/high market items, since open source
platforms are user feature driven, crippleware doesn't tend to cut it. 
Just as unlike commercial proprietaryware, most libreware a/v software
simply ignores region coding and bypasses "must play" instructions for the
ads at the beginning of DVDs, for instance, if the hardware can do it and
the interface is known, with libreware, the feature will tend to be
available in print drivers and the like, regardless of the cost of the
original item and its place in the market.

Anyway, while I didn't mention it directly, I'm basically doing my
hardware search in conjunction with verifying the Linux functionality
(MSWormOS functionality or lack there of, as claimed on the box, being
irrelevant) thru linuxprinting.org and the like.  I'm going to be quite
well assured that the hardware I buy does what I want under Linux, with
libreware (not proprietary) drivers, or I won't buy that hardware, passing
it up for something that /does/ work as it's supposed to, under libreware
Linux.

Oh... I didn't mention, I'm running amd64, not x86-(32), so I have to
verify it works equally well with /that/ sort of Linux.  Of course, that
isn't generally a huge issue, as long as it's libreware drivers we are
talking about, as they tend to be already ported.  Anything
proprietaryware, even proprietaryware designed to run on Linux, may cause
issues, because they haven't found it worth the trouble to port it yet,
but that doesn't happen as much with libreware, and where it does, a user
can take things into his own hands developing or sponsoring the port
himself, if necessary, something not likely to be possible with
proprietaryware, at least at comparable cost.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." --
Benjamin Franklin



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