Say it with me pow-der based to-ners.

I tried that once with a Dell LaserJet. Managing printer drivers was a nightmare, and every time I plugged it in, the lights flickered. Eventually I got rid of it because the hassle wasn't worth the effort.

Honestly, I don’t mind inkjet as a technology, the quality is plenty good and I don’t give a crap about speed. And as you can see from this design they’re a whole lot more compact. The whole reason I don’t use them is the predatory ink pricing, which this product in theory solves!

I don’t know of any diesel electric cars, but most diesel locomotives use their diesel engines to generate electricity to run the drivetrain.

Or natural gas being called a “green fuel” by German politicians.

I bet they have liquid ice, too.

That's direct thermal, not laser. Problem is direct thermal prints don't last very long and the paper is expensive. Thermal transfer uses expensive ribbons, and laser is super complex.

Oh goody, we might have a real use for the "Printer on fire" message in the Linux kernel again!

Do you have a tutorial on how that's done?

I think the fact that it's hardware will prevent any cease and desist (or rather the legal teeth behind them). It's not licensed IP but a physical product.

Like I think of it more like 3rd party car parts. Depending on the part, they often need to target specific makes, models, and even years of cars. It's why so many parts have had encrypted handshakes with the main computer (John Deere is famous for this but I understand some cars are doing it for some parts these days, too) because they couldn't just stop them in the courts.

I'm not sure that this is how it will work but hopefully. Also selling ink cartridges is how HP makes its money and it uses some of that money to subsidize the printers themselves, so they might like that this printer sells more of those rather than moving entirely away from their ecosystem.

Thank you clearing that up.

TBH im ok with the NC clause. Otherwise they'll be replicated and enshittified by big and small brands, push for anti-features as standards and end up with stuff like Bamboolabs

Pity and Shame typically go hand an hand, you’ll hear people say “That’s a shame” but you can replace shame with pity “That’s a pity” and achieve the same result.

However when addressing another person, you won’t hear people say “I shame you” instead you’ll hear “I pity you” to show displeasure or anger to another person.

Hope this helps!

My favorite dot matrix memory is printing a like 400 page Breath of Fire 3 strategy guide on a daisy wheel dot matrix, and it took over night to print and everyone in the house complained about the constant ditditditditditditditditdit

edit: And the ribbon was so worn out that you needed forensic equipment to read it, but i persevered.

I would love to have the same model Star Micronics I had in the 90s. Selectable tractor or friction feed, 24pin, multiple text fonts...it was nice.

How often are you moving your printer that the weight is a concern?

I have wiped a toner cartridge with a paper towel and chucked thst sucker back into a ye olde HP from 20 years ago with a broken guider clip and it still prints perfectly fine.

I wiped it because it was leaving a smudge at the edge of the paper after never cleaning the rollers for aforementioned 20 years.

I guess I can add briefcase printer for mission impossible as a use case for inkjet lol

Oh... does anyone still make fanfold paper?

Having been an IT guy for a very long time this is my recommendation to everyone. Buy a cheap laser printer for your home. Ink jet is garbage it will piss you off every time you want to print something, it's a trap. Go with whatever brand you want, but brother is the one I'd recommend most

In my home I have a brother color laser printer, it may have run over $300, I don't recall. But I don't recall because I think I bought it 15 years ago and it still works just fine every time I need to print. No regrets.

Remember to include the price of a new toner cartridge when looking for a cheap laser printer. Some become quite expensive when you include it.

I've had a monochrome Brother laser printer for about 14 years now. Still using the original toner that came with it, though it's down to about 20% or so. Prints every time I need it which isn't very often, but when I need to print something, I actually need to print it.

Worse than that, the printer I have, a Brother MFC-J895DW, actively eats its own ink on purpose (in the name of keeping it from drying out). Like most people, we print infrequently and I noticed that like every other time we would go to print we would be out of ink. After a bit of searching I found out this was a known thing and it was done on purpose.

I now turn the printer on to print and off when not printing. I haven't bought ink in over a year. Yeah the print heads need to be conditioned if you go too long between prints, but so what.

That's just what happens when you have stuff dissolved in solvents.