[sf-lug] SF-LUG meeting notes for Monday 21 January 2019

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Bobbie Sellers (bliss-sf4ever at dslextreme.com):

[stuff about Jim's difficulties, which I'm sorry to hear about]

> >So, I'm confused about what 'has disappeared from CUPS recently'
> >means.  Do you have the gutenprint package installed, or not?  What
> >printer driver did you use to use (i.e., what does 'the printer driver
> >for my consumer Epson 515NX' mean specifically)?
> 
>     Well the copy of CUPS I had at hand does not have that driver.

Bobbie, hey, be here now, please:  You just ignored completely the
question, even though you quoted it just above your reply.  Here it is
again:  

Do you have the gutenprint package installed, or not?

I really am uncertain, because I don't know a lot about PCLinuxOS, about
how PCLinuxOS has decided to package the Gutenprint/Foomatic printer
filters ('drivers').  Each Linux distribution does things just a bit
differently.  So, I cannot tell you exactly what package(s) to install
to acquire the necessary filter set -- but I _can_ ask you the crucial
question:  Do you have the gutenprint package installed, or not?

I'm not clear on why you blew off the question.  I didn't ask just for
the finger exercise.  I was asking because it appears a vital yes/no
question needed in order to solve your problem.

If you don't understand a question like that, or why it's being posed,
it's of course always appropriate to say you'd appreciate some context,
as nobody here's expected to be an expert.  But just ignoring the
question?  Seems kind of not even in your interest, frankly.  And just
serves to waste time that you and I could both spend on other things.


>     I started pricing the smaller laser printers last night but
> the consumable seem to be high priced but then you get
> more pages out of the refills.

Have you considered Craigslist (used items) and Freecycle (free items)?
Either's going to save you _a lot_ compared to new-retail, obviously,
though there's less convenience and finding The Right Thing[tm] can take
time.  


Yes, toner cartridges for B&W laser or (basically the same thing) LED
printers seem pricey compared to inkjet cartridges -- until you
guesstimate the supplies cost per page printed, at which point you
realise what a ripoff inkjet supplies are by comparison.

As a fine point, I can't prove it from facts and figures at the moment,
but I'm pretty sure that toner cartridges for whatever laser-printer
print engines, at any given time, are considered standard infrastructure
printers by the corporate world are significantly cheaper per printed
page than are laser printer cartridges in general -- on account of
economies of scale and the effects of competition.

For example, among the earliest generation of laser printers, Apple's
early LaserWriters and HP's early LaserJets all used the same
ultra-reliable Canon printer engine, with the result that there was a huge
and very competitive retail market for compatible toner cartridges, and
thus prices were low.  The next generation from HP switched to a highly
respected Ricoh printer engine -- again feeding a good suppiles
aftermarket.  Still later, the highly regarded mid-1990s LaserJet
4/4M/4+/4M+/4SI/4SIMX series used one of a couple of (again) very good
Canon printer engines, once again insuring that supplies for the
LaserJet 4 series has remained plentiful and cheap, even today.

I can't recommend any of those _specific_ printers in 2019, so long
after their day -- though if someone offered me a working LaserJet 4M
for free, I wouldn't turn it down -- but I'm mentioning them to
illustrate a broader point about the general desirability of models
adopted as good-standard choices by serious businesses.  (I"m _not_ 
talking about shlock targeted at the small office/home office or
'personal' markets.)