Enshittification

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What is enshittification?

The phenomenon of online platforms gradually degrading the quality of their services, often by promoting advertisements and sponsored content, in order to increase profits. (Cory Doctorow, 2022, extracted from Wikitionary) source

The lifecycle of Big Internet

We discuss how predatory big tech platforms live and die by luring people in and then decaying for profit.

Embrace, extend and extinguish

We also discuss how naturally open technologies like the Fediverse can be susceptible to corporate takeovers, rugpulls and subsequent enshittification.

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Printer Recommendations? (infosec.pub)

submitted 6 days ago by Sophocles@infosec.pub to c/enshittification@lemmy.world

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So I've recently come into the market for a good printer, or as good a one as I can find because printers are straight up evil. I thought posting here would be relevant seeing that most of the printers I have looked up are enshittified garbage (looking at you HP).

My old thrift store Brother printer does well for basic text printing, but I'm looking for something that can handle glossy photo printing with decent quality; not perfect, just decent. I don't need all the bells and whistles like fax, scanning, etc. just a simple good printer that isn't an enshittified ink subscription machine.

Things I am looking for:
Linux Compatability (Fedora Workstation)
USB or wired connection (no required internet)
Can handle thicker glossy 8.5x11
Decent photo quality , color printing
Double sided printing
(Optional) 3rd party ink compatible
(Optional) compact/small
(Optional) Under $400, preferably between $80 and $200

Any recommendations? What have you used and liked? Are there any other good brands or startups that arent the big four (HP, Canon, Brother, Epson)?

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[–] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 5 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Something built for business use, not a consumer grade inkjet printer. They're all terrible, barely-technically-working-5-minutes-from-landfill junk.

Mostly that means a laser printer. Canon and Brother have good driver support on Linux.

Something like this Brother HL-L3220CDW: https://ebay.io/m/7laVWS

https://www.brother-usa.com/p/laser-printers/HLL3220CDW?pid=HLL3220CDW

Friends don't let friends buy inkjets.

[–] fakeman_pretendname@feddit.uk 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

I have that exact Brother printer, which I love, but sadly it's not capable of doing photo printing to any reasonable standard. For general use I thoroughly agree with you though.

For photo printing at home, you sadly probably do need an inkjet for it, and specifically a photo printing one with 6 inks.

I used to use old Epson ones (I think an R200 and R2400), which are old enough to be mostly pre-enshittification. These did serve me well (accepted 3rd party ink refills, printed well, gave me no shit), but eventually I stopped using them frequently enough to keep them in good working order. I've still got the R2400, but it's back in its box on a shelf, and would need quite a bit of cleaning and maintenance to get running again.

As others suggested, if I need anything of very high photo quality doing these days, I send it to the local printers.

I do have one remaining inkjet, which is an older "Epson Ecotank", so it runs from bottles of ink instead of cartridges, and seems relatively happy to sit unused for months without clogging up, and the running costs are incredibly cheap - but it probably cost about £200-£300 new when I got it (about 10 years ago) - and it's okay for images and photos, but nowhere near the quality you'd get from sending things to a printers. So it's fine for printing a photo well enough to show someone something, for a diagram, manual, floorplan example etc - but not a good enough print for someone to buy a copy to frame and put on their wall.

There are newer ecotank printers (which include 6 ink photo versions) - though I've not tried them personally- but may be worth OP looking at? Might cost you £600 - £700 (or your regional equivalent) though. Perhaps a slightly older model could fit that price range?

[Edit] "Tankbenefit" is the Brother equivalent of Epson "Ecotank" - and some of those claim to be photo printers, for about £300

[–] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 1 points 6 days ago

Friends don't let friends buy inkjets

This needs to be on a billboard.

I haven't had an inkjet in my house since about 2003. Fuck that junk. Did I mention they were junk. Or how much I hate, hate, hate those things?

Fuck an inkjet, I'd sooner let a toddler scribble a monster spreadsheet in crayon.