Is it time to retire the scanner ?

[Polytropon]

On Sun, 23 Oct 2016 16:57:49 +0100, Steve O'Hara-Smith wrote:
> On Sun, 23 Oct 2016 17:28:01 +0200
> Polytropon <freebsd at edvax.de> wrote:
> 
> > On Sun, 23 Oct 2016 09:51:00 -0500 (CDT), Valeri Galtsev wrote:
> > > 
> > > On Sun, October 23, 2016 8:58 am, Steve O'Hara-Smith wrote:
> > > > On Sun, 23 Oct 2016 13:53:34 +0200
> > > > Polytropon <freebsd at edvax.de> wrote:
> > > >
> > > >> 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...
> > > > 	`
> > > > 	Probably not in the previous 10 years too (well it's almost
> > > > 2017 and the LJ4000 came out in 1997), I know for sure that you could
> > > > spool PS to a Laserjet 4 with lpr/lpd under FreeBSD 1.1.5.1 because I
> > > > did just that.
> > > 
> > > And to add to that, HP keeps making supplies for their this old
> > > printers. We do have HP LaserJet 4050 in our Department which was
> > > purchased around 2001 or 2002. Still works, HP still makes toners.
> > > Kudos HP!
> > 
> > Even "worse": The toner cartridges are quite cheap. People usually
> > think I'm lying when I tell them my home printing costs are 30 Euro
> > every 3 years (this is 10 Euro per year, less than 1 Euro per month).
> > Try to beat _that_ with typical consumer ink cartridge costs... ;-)
> 
> 	About the same as mine using oversized 'CIS' cartridges and bulk
> ink in my Brother inkjet (cheap A3 - hard to resist), but then we don't
> print much perhaps a ream or so per year.

Some years ago, I met a HP Officejet printer with ink cartridges
(not combined with printing heads!) where you could easily (and
also quite cleanly!) refill the ink from big "bulk ink" bottles
with a set of syringes. Needless to say, it had a scanner with
sheet feeder, a fax, a built-in SD card reader and USB slot, a
color display - and it even was networked! That was the first
time when I tought that there are ink printers which aren't crap
to rip off the customer. And it supported FreeBSD of course. :-)



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