Not sure why everyone is knocking this. Yes, it uses an HP print head, but it’s a massive leap in the right direction. You can’t expect some small startup to immediately create all the components, that’s simply unrealistic. Let this be a first generation, with enough interest we could have a second generation that doesn’t rely on HP printheads anymore. But we’ll never get a second generation if we expect perfection from the first.
I mean, even if you’re running Linux, chances are you’re running on something proprietary. That’s not the point. Anything where you can switch away from something proprietary is an improvement, even if you can’t switch everything.
Open source hardware allows this.
Under CERN licensing, it’s called an “available component”
If you build an open source car with an off the shelf motor, it’s still an open source car. As it should be.
There are already third party HP print heads, and ways to refill used ones.
Well, apparently, the print head is pretty complicated to make, so this project uses refillable cartridges with an integrated head.
They can’t be refilled indefinitely, and if HP (manufacturer the project picked) changes the product, deprecates it and eventually stops selling it, the printer will no longer print.
Maybe it could support several cartridge types, but honestly, I don’t understand the target audience. You’ll still be bound to the regular printer ecosystem, and I’m not sure there is so much interesting stuff to modify / hack in the remaining system, which is mostly transport (of paper and the head). These parts also rarely failed for me in printers in the past, so I personally also don’t get the repair argument.
It’s still a good effort, if something comes out of it. If anyone is excited about this, I’d love to hear what you’re looking forward to in this printer.
Just a few benefits, the target audience is anyone who doesn’t want to pay the full price of a printer to replace ink or support a locked-in infrastrucure.
You can refill the cartridges rather than replace so you’re only reliant on HP for initial purchase then replacing broken parts.
Ink replacement cost: $10-20 vs $40-100+. You also won’t need to replace all three color cartridges when one goes bad
Not getting locked into software requirements: A printer shouldn’t require a ~350mb start on boot backgtound app to have a driver on your system.
Lower likelihood of fingerprinting: some printers can be identified by their print pattern. Not as much a concern for the everyday user i admit but less is better even if it’s cookie recipes. …Especially if its cookie recipes 😬
I’m just here to watch some corporate printers get knocked down a peg or two.
Yeah, unfortunately hp is one of the only big manufacturers with the printhead on cartridge. Lexmark used to, but I don’t know if they still do. They will need to figure out a modular cartridge holder to at least swap out when these are discontinued.
I bet it’s still going to be a pain in the butt to set up in Linux and make it work properly.
Edit: it was a joke, you guys
Printing on Linux is like the simplest thing in the world because of CUPS. If you bought a printer that doesn’t support CUPS that’s on you, dawg!
I know, I was joking.
I never got to get borderless photo printing to work on my ink jet printer though. I had to keep a Windows VM just to run the Canon photo print software for that purpose.
What’s CUPS? And does my brother b&w cheap laser support it potentially?
It could set up painlessly and still be a nightmare to own. Printers are just inherently awful devices.
