Printers… are horrible. I know. But my main problem is that they are not repairable whatsoever. I hate throwing away a printer even though only one part needs to be replaced. But the whole damn thing is so complicated and hard to repair that i don’t have the time for it.
Having a framework style modular printer would be incredible, just from a repairability and environmental standpoint.
But I’m afraid it won’t happen because printers are complicated and it’s not like pc’s where you can just source parts from other companies. So i’m not holding my breath
The best idea is to just stop printing. I’m recently retired, but the last 10 or so years of my consulting career was busily spent converting many doctors, project managers, lawyers, accountants (public / private sole practitioners up to departments with 200 people)- across many paper intensive industries - to go paperless. It is a different mindset, and requires some fortitude to get past the initial internal resistance. I’ve heard plenty of excuses for why clients can’t go paperless, but in the end 98% of them did. You will require some extra hardware (multiple monitors), good backup systems (because all your paper records will have been shredded and recycled), a good desk scanner (like the ScanSnap series) and likely good annotation software (like Acrobat pro) - but it can be done. And when you are there - you are helping save the planet, you will be significantly more efficient at your work, you will save a bundle on printers, paper, ink, toner etc. You will be able to easily search though all your records and documents - the benefits go on and on.
@Ken_Wiens oh believe me, as a business owner of pharmacy. Our printing usage has dropped significantly since I’ve started actually taking over from my parents. BUT every time we apply chances to the digital, centrally stored on the gov server, medication overviews. We print a copy in a4 and in a much smaller size (to put next to their id card for emergencies) because people still want to have them on paper as the gov hasn’t provided a great way to view them digitally via an app. (although most of the people that need medication overviews are senior and prefer the paper version anyway).
Some printers, like HP’s, I believe run Linux under the hood, mainly for running a CUPS server, though the printing/scanning part is likely to be completely proprietary.
I have fantasized a few times about printer reverse engineering, and an OpenWrt-esque firmware especially for printers, to help solve some of these issues.
