I think, for me, owning a printer is like owning a van. You’re the only person your friends know who has one, so every time someone needs it you’re the one they ask.
Joke’s on you; I have no friends.
Except for my wife and kids almost nobody knows I have one. But yes I have gotten pdfs from my mother in law to print.
I bought a Brother printer and an extra large toner cartridge a dozen years ago and it just sits there and prints things without any problems from any device on my WiFi.
So invent a time machine and get a Brother from ten years ago is my advice.
Same. After years of replacing ink in the hp to do one print job, then letting it sit and dry out until it was time again. But now I’ve had that brother for a decade on the same toner
"Xennials are the micro-generation of people on the cusp of the Generation X and Millennial demographic cohorts.
Many researchers and popular media use birth years from 1977 to 1983,[1] though some extend this further in either direction"
never heard of these.
We are the elder millenials, who know how to defragment a hard drive.
I’m a bit older than the minimum age to be a millenial and have defragmented many drives. when I was like 6 but I still remember watching that stupid coloured blocks diagram for hours for some 20mb or something
Those were the days
A little older than minimum? Doesn’t that make you the young side of smack dab in the exact category? xP
We who have set dip switches or jumpers for an irq address on a sound blaster.
We, the internet’s first squeakers, ruining all of your adult conversations on ICQ, Prodigy, and AOL.
A/S/L?
I’m not even gen X and I’ve done this! On multiple computers. … Oh god, I’m a nerd, aren’t I?
Yep.
We could whistle into a phone and get a modem to try to talk to us.
What a phreak!
I’m a younger millennial but I know how to do that. Culturally I relate way more with gen z than I do millennials, but man do I feel immense pain when I have to explain to people younger than me how to use technology. I had to explain to one of my younger coworkers how to navigate between folders and different hard drives within Windows the other day and it was more difficult than teaching my mom how to use a smart phone when they first came out. Too young to have had a MySpace but old enough to be everyone’s personal IT guy.
You must be 28
I’m guessing 36
The proto-millennials, if you will.
The deep magic
By hand. 😤
Uphill, both ways
At 2400 baud and then someone picks up the phone
Defragmenting takes way too long, especially with a > 6tb drive: just buy a new one and copy the data to it then wipe the old one.
It doesn’t do anything you know it just burns out the hard drive.
It did back in the windows 95 through XP days. I 'member when Windows would bog the fuck down if it was too fragmented. I’m pretty sure it was fat32 that was the problem.
Oh yeah, defrag me harder daddy
I’m in there, I feel closer to Millenial than Gen X but not quite full Millenial. Think it’s also referred to as the Oregon Trail generation, due to it being a common early PC game to play in class when they taught us computers. I still remember first seeing the trash bin on a Macintosh grow fat when it had items in it, I thought it was awesome, years before Windows.
Yes but do you remember The Secret Island of Dr. Quandary and the creepy dolls?
I thought we were the Oregon Trail generation. (‘81)
We’re sometimes referred to as “The Oregon Trail Generation.” We rode our bikes and ran around in the woods until it got dark, then went inside to play Nintendo.
We are the Xenomorph generation.
They were called Gen Y back in the early 90s
TIL I’m a “Xelennial”
There are a bunch of us who had a more GenX life than our birth year would suggest. The internet wasn’t a source of study and paper writing until college. We were allowed to stay home alone after school far younger than is legal today. In the summer we were kicked out of the house and roamind the town on your bike with no method of contact was normal.
If you saw kids in an 80s movie our lives matched that more than a 90s movie.
Xennial here, get a Brother laser printer if you can. The “starter toner” lasted me for like 4 years so far and is only now getting low. I can’t imagine going back to an inkjet that would always dry up since I used infrequently, but I still needed it.
A second vote for brother lasers.
I upgraded my old printer about 6 months ago. Laser is far superior, and no longer particularly expensive. I also discovered they have solved the photo printing quality issue at some point (laser’s only real weakness). I ran off a photo and it came out near/at inkjet quality.
You do one up front payment and it saves so much money long term, so many people are against that concept
Bonus is you can buy third party refilled toner in bundles for like $15 for 3. I bought some a couple of years ago and I still haven’t burned through the first replacement
There have been reports that Brother has finally started being evil about third-party toner with new firmwares.
That’s why I’m thankful I haven’t updated mine and it’s an older model. People should look out for that for sure.
Same, 3 years running, printing lots of shit for my own company and just now got a “low toner” warning which I’m ignoring for the last 2 or so months. Buying an inkjet is the biggest scam there is, you pay more in the ink and broken printers than you ever would for a laser.
Yep, finally got rid of my Epson BJ with a Brother b/w laser and it’s fantastic. A little louder but it functions like it should instead of complaining about low Magenta.
Who the hell can afford a printer
Anyone can afford the printer, it’s the ink that’s the problem
The cheap refills came with a free printer.
Just get a Brother laser printer. It uses a normal power chord same exact as any desktop PC, and uses toner, same exact as any real printer that’s not a money farming piece of shit ink jet.
DISCLAIMER: I have not investigated Brother or other brands for enshittification in recent years, so YMMV.
My Brother lazer color printer has just been sitting here, pooping out pages and pages of what ever I want, sometimes sitting there off for months, year after year. Still haven’t changed the toner.
Same, had a samsung for 5 years and it sucked, my Brother has been solid for over 5 years now. Just get one that has network support, so you can print from any computer (and even a phone) in your network.
I really miss google cloud print, it was an amazing product (my printer still supports it).
Seconded! I have several Brother MFCs. Rock solid, great Linux support, rarely change the toner.
Is that an AC/DC power chord?
Sir/ma’am, you win the best comment I’ve seen today, congrats
My HP color laser was such a hassle, every time I wanted to use it I had to hard boot it, and even then it only worked half the time. No wifi or apple access over the network or any other fancy stuff ofc.
Have a b&w brother now, the android app is meh but else it’s wonderful, just doing its job all day long.
Is the color laser as good?
In my experience, yes, but I also do not print a ton of color things, or things in general. It’s just been spitting out random pages here or there for years. Maybe only went through 1.5 reams so far.
I had a Samsung laser back in college and now it’s leaving streaks down the page. No clue how to clean it. I think I gave it away
The best investment of my life was buying an Epson LQ500 back in… I don’t know… '95 perhaps? All this years, and even after months or even years without use it will happily awake from its slumber to once again scream and punch dots on to its never ending but ancient supply of fanfold paper
But where do you get new ribbons? Or can you re-ink them?
For one, they are still sold new for a surprising low amount of money (e.g.: https://www.bueromarkt-ag.de/farbband_kmp_0633_0501_fuer_epson,vt-farbbaender_und_-rollen,vh-epson,vg-lq_500,p-06330501.html) but re-inking them using just rubber stamp ink is also a possibility.
I just print at a local library
Got a simple brother laser printer. Duplex, BW only, works flawlessly with Linux and as a network printer.
4-5 times a year I’ll need to print 10 pages. Add an additional one every two weeks.
The printer definitely paid for itself in convenience.
Same, I got mocked for buying it. It gets used at least once a month.
The entire printer industry is being funded by our grandparents, I am not fucking joking. My grandpa has bought MULTIPLE printers last year alone, please some one send help.
My entire family for probably 30 years thought i was gaslighting them about how bad my grandfather is with computers. And phones. And the internet. And phones.
He’s 93 and he’s convinced them really well these last 5 years or so. It’s a nightmare lol.
Help in the form of more printers?
No, he obviously needs a fax so he can receive your message
My local library has been getting refurbished for a couple of months.
It’s really thrown off my ability to do paperwork, as they were the only people around with a working printer.
I actually had to fix the printer at work. Horrible stuff.
Hey! I use my local library too! 😂
Ditto on libraries. Mine does AWESOME large format printing for next to nothing. I got 5 different sewing patterns printed, which ended up being 20 or so pages of 48"x48" sheets in color and it cost about $30. Priced it at fedex and it was running well over $100 (I think closer to 200 or 300 but I didn’t pay much attention after seeing how much it was at the libraries.
I have a small Canon b/w laserjet at home which has worked well for small projects but the libraries have been a huge help for anything outside standard letter size print jobs.
I’ve had an operational printer in the household since around the year 2000, and I cannot fathom not having access to one. I would be a virtual headless chicken running around wailing about gutenburg or something.
Switching from Ink to Laser printers was a game changer as far as maintenance and costs (you can pick up a reconditioned laser printer from the early 2000’s from a company that specializes in refurbing them and rock it for decades).
i mean, yeah i have had a nice working brother printer for a few decades, but i got a library card too. My employer can afford 10 cents a page if they want me to print.
Having a home printer allows for easy printing of shipping labels, zines, letters, etc.
As for books, it can be useful for rarer books that a library may not have access to, though that is a bit more rare of a need.
I bought a Brother about a year ago. I hadn’t owned a printer in about 12-15 years. In Japan, one can generally just print things at the convenience store (after uploading (app, browser, etc.) or via USB stick), but I moved to the middle of nowhere and got tired of going back and forth. I also needed to print things like business cards which the cobini printers won’t do.
I used to take out my reliable ol’ USB pendrive whenever I wanted to print something. Then right after a printing errand I found out my pendrive had gotten sick with a virus called “Marcelo” and suddenly all the document files on the family PC turned into shortcuts that lead to an encrypted folder. Never again lol
Just bought a brother laser for my job. Damn toner ran out on day 1. I printed 400 pages but still… Oh brother
Have you considered a Kindle instead?
Kindles can print now?
Nope, but you can read books on them, so you don’t need to print them out at home
Sadly my job requires signed papers from each employee to be on file for the state AG department. It’s an enormous waste.
I’ve heard good things about Brother, how’s the ink and Linux situation with those?
I test printed once from Mint, but couldn’t daily-drive linux due to other software I need to work not working after a mint version upgrade.
In usa you can email documents to staples to get a code to print on their copiers for a fee
We bought a laser printer during the pandemic to keep the kids occupied with educational tasks and general craft type models.
It has been fucking awesome this past few years. It has supported the weight of many a schoolbag, been a home for car keys, kept a judo gi flat for a few days, and has even proven to be a worthy store of the multitude of swimming goggles we seem to accumulate.
Oh, it’s printed a couple of documents too. I can’t remember the last time I refilled the paper tray.
Yeah, I have a 20yo laser printer that’s still going strong, although the network card crapped out.
Yeah laser units are pretty much indestructible in decent conditions. Can yours be connected by USB or parallel instead?
Yeah, the USB cable still works. I could set up a print server, but it’s pretty unnecessary for the 3-4 times a year I print something.
Millenials
Hey other 40 year olds: Do you not have a printer? I have never not owned a printer. Technically speaking, I have 3 printers right now. A document printer, an FDM 3D printer, and a resin 3D printer.
I don’t know why I would have a printer
To throw at someone who asks for their keys.
Yeah I have no idea what this is talking about. 38 here, I’ve owned a printer for 15 years at least. We switched to a Brother laser printer a few years back and it’s the tits.
I also own a minivan, AMA.
Perhaps you guys are too young and printers just skipped a generation.
I own a 3d printer and haven’t had a 2d printer since childhood. I do have a personal laser printer at the office and it’s awesome.
I’m 34, I own a printer, an FDM printer and my ex has my 3 other 3d printers.
And two non-working printers. And a working laser color printer I miss dearly.
I’m 40 and haven’t had a printer for 14 years, because I moved and left it behind (gave to a friend) on purpose; I have been printing things at work
So I guess what I’m saying is, I’m the guy in the meme
