Canon Aggressively Suing Printer Toner Makers and Removing Their Amazon Listings | Hacker News Reader

Canon Aggressively Suing Printer Toner Makers and Removing Their Amazon Listings

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31 pointspetee20 comments

This is the best advertisement for Epson I've ever seen. I know Canon wasn't thinking of it that way but being on the fence between the Canon and Epson photo printers this sways me strongly toward Epson.

Why Epson ? Canon is a shit company since 20 years but Epson is not far away. Yes i can use non Epson ink after i press ok on the warning after every print, but it will print missaligned. A thing which, automagically, does not happen with Epson ink.

What are the other options? Just living with poor quality prints from Brother or HP?

Get laser printer for at-home b/w printing. Go to office store to get good quality color prints the few times a year they are needed.

You REALLY don't want to go down the road with Epson. Historically Canon has been the best in terms of reliable "inkjet". I still shiver at the nightmare of the Epson printers in the 00s and early 10s. They used this really agressive ink that while produced beautiful print, easily clogged up the expensive printheads embedded in the printers. The school district I worked for lost easily 100+ units to this issue. And the tactics they used to prevent refills. God what a nightmare. All the printer companies suck (yes even brother) they just suck in different ways and at different times.

Since you seem to have a lot of experience with printers I'm genuinely curious to know what goes wrong with Brother laser printers

Not much actually, I put brother in there because there was a story about 7 months ago where they started engaging in these shenanigans.

[1]:https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31860131

I have an Epson R2880 that needs keyhole surgery because of this stupid ink. Stunning, heavenly prints but needs to be constantly used. The alternative ink feed options are excellent, however, such as the bulk options. I inject TP ink into TP cartridges now.

It's not a bug, it's a feature. Constant usage means constant need to purchase.

Epson has been the absolute worst home printer I've ever had, restricting access to the scanner because one of the ink cartridge was empty.

I've tossed it into the e-waste container and bought a Brother laser printer, and it's been rocking on for 8 years so far.

I have a Canon all-in-one inkjet. I almost always buy third-party cartridges off of Amazon. They seem fine, but I'm a basic user, printing only what's necessary. It always surprises me when I see the screen say it's an authentic Canon cartridge. How is this accomplished? Cloning the chips? Reverse engineering? Taking chips from recycled cartridges?

Depends on the model. I used to tinker with tons of inkjet + laser models when I worked for my high school and then university IT departments. Some companies even sold bed of nail type programmers that would reset the chip on the fly. On many cartridges, the chip on the cartridge is just a simple SPI chip that maintains a print count. Easy to just erase and reset. This was common in the 00s and early 10s im sure newer printers have upped the ante. Things such as efuses, cartridges signing with a secret key could be possible and its probably inevitable if it hasn't happened already.

So, don't buy Canon. Got it.

Sticking with my trusty Brothers printers; both color ink-jet and monochrome laser.

13 years, same drum for Brothers laser. 7,500+ pages.

6 years for Brothers color ink-jet.

Canon inkjet, went into the trash after 13 months.

Model? I've read the newer Brothers have issues especially with non OEM toner. I want to buy a good, reliable, Linux capable, non internet required printer and I'd love to get a Brother. Curious to how their current offerings compare to the older ones.

https://www.brother-usa.com/products/hll2300d

Have had no problems with non oem toner with this model.

Yep I own this one too.

Also for those curious about the Linux compatibility of Brother printers, the list on here is your guide.

https://github.com/pdewacht/brlaser

Thanks. Should have also specified, would like one that is Ethernet capable and not wireless at all. I'll keep looking!

Ethernet interface monochrome laser printer, HLL-2370D

$159 USD

https://www.brother-usa.com/products/hll2370dw

Love my Brother laser printer. Never any issues with it and the cheap toner I can get on eBay lasts so long!

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