Jarle Aase wrote: > And frankly, it makes no sense to me that printers require special > drivers in order to work. The transport protocols are standardized. The > page description protocols are standardized (or at least well known).
This is true, but the internal machinery must be driven somehow - this is not covered by anything standardized. > Using proprietary transport or page description protocols seems just > like a waste of development resources and support resources. It's very > hard to make good, optimal implementations of anything slightly complex > (it's just weeks ago another dns bug was found in glibc!). Therefore it > should be best for everyone to refine common code to do such things as > safe and efficient as possible. Not reinventing wheels and doing the > same stupid mistakes over and over again. I really don't understand what > the printer industry (this is not only a problem with Brother) is doing. > May be it boils down to something as simple as the egos at incompetent > product managers. Well, I also do not understand capitalist way of thinking perfectly well. While no one is supposed to reinvent the wheel, industry etc works in secrecy and does not share - thus one is supposed to reinvent the wheel at the end or share profit (patent rights). One mentioned obsolescence before. I think the profit driven corporations are acting nowdays as psychopats. The printing would work without proprietary software as you pointed out - that protocol is standard but if you check the specs of the device, you would find out that it is All-in-one unit - scanner + printer + wireless print server. All this needs a software - I highlight 2 points from the specs - Wireless Mobile Device Printing - Web Connect Scan to popular cloud services including Google Drive™, DropboxWeb Connect Scan to popular cloud services including Google Drive™, Dropbox, Evernote® and Evernote Business® , Microsoft OneNote® and more, Evernote® and Evernote Business® , Microsoft OneNote® and more http://www.brother-usa.com/MultiFunction/ModelDetail/4/mfcj5720dw/Overview#.Vt8TanYiQR9 So if you want to just print - buy just printing device and do not moan about proprietary drivers. I personally prefer HP business class laser printers - you could opt in wireless or whatever features - ex: http://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/business-solutions/hp-laserjet-p2035-printer-ce461a-aba Epson products are also on my table, however people save 100$ to complain later and drop the product in 5 years. I've been using Epson needle printer since 1996 and HP LJ 5L since 2001. I hope I can use them another 5-10y. regards