[nzlug] Being a lazy burger....

[Daniel Pittman]

Cliff Pratt <enkidu at cliffp.com> writes:
> Nick Rout wrote:
>> Cliff Pratt wrote:
>>>
>>> I'm being a lazy burger and asking before I've done the research....
>>>
>>> So, how do these USB attached printers and MFCs go on Linux? I've
>>> always used parallel printers till now. In this case I'm using CUPS
>>> on Ubuntu....

[...]

>> my HP PSC 2210 works in its entirety, prints, scans, (sends)faxes and
>> the cardreader works too. In fact it works better than it did under
>> windows, which was not at all due to some undiagnosable error,
>> probably linked to my VIA USB chipset. But it works under
>> linux. Support HP, they support open source. Do check the individual
>> model first though.
>
> As I said before, I don't believe that HP *does* really support open
> source. They do support RedHat. 

Ah.  I think you and I, at least, were talking past each other before:

When I say "HP support Open Source" (in this discussion) I meant:

    HP supply the drivers and information required to allow Open Source
    software to fully support their hardware on any platform, in such a
    way that they can't later revoke or restrict those capabilities.

When you say "HP support Open Source" I *think* you mean:

    An end user can call HP and say "my printer doesn't work" -- and
    have HP work with them to fix the problem on any arbitrary Linux
    platform.


In other words: I, at least, was talking about "support" in terms of
technical information.  

You seem to be talking about "support" as in "help desk support."

That probably explains the disconnection in our discussion; I feel a
little happier now understanding how we could have such opposite views
on what I thought were some pretty plain facts. ;)

> I work with them day in, day out and unless the machine in question is
> running RedHat or Windows, they don't want to know. And then only
> specific versions of RH or Windows. (eg at one time they supported
> RHEL3 but not RHEL4, even though RHEL was, I think, approaching 2
> years old). 

Well, RHEL /is/ supported for seven years from the day of release -- at
least in theory and contracts. :)

[...]

> I've had several HP desktop printers and I don't think that I would
> buy another. I would not buy any other brand of Laser Printer however,
> if I could help it. Horses for courses.

I would, personally, avoid the entire desktop printer area as well, 
the wretched poorly made nasty costly things that they generally are.

Regards,
        Daniel
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