Post Aa1pm5oy1kIOgEQWNU by Suiseiseki@freesoftwareextremist.com
(DIR) More posts by Suiseiseki@freesoftwareextremist.com
(DIR) Post #AYIKLfEJdlDbfS0gb2 by thomzane@daedal.io
2023-07-31T21:23:04Z
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I bought a new HP+ LaserJet MFP M234dw printer and it has my blood boiling. You set it up with an app (red flag). It uses an anti-pattern to try to get you to agree to send all of your data to them and friends (red flag). It forces a connection to the Internet (red flag).
(DIR) Post #AYIKLg0AlpV23sOuBs by thomzane@daedal.io
2023-07-31T21:23:15Z
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https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c04808536"note: If you have an HP+ printer, web services are automatically enabled during printer setup. Go to 123.hp.com to download the HP Smart app, and then set up your printer. To remove web services, perform a printer reset to restore factory default settings."
(DIR) Post #AYIKLgaga4hrt7U46S by thomzane@daedal.io
2023-07-31T21:25:50Z
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I had it configured to print without the Internet somehow. It was behaving like a normal network printer. Someone else on my network installed drivers and it undid the work that I did and now it is I-won't-do-that-daveing me and won't print until the Internet print is enabled. It even tried to trick them to enable sending metrics after I configured it not to.
(DIR) Post #AYIKLhAUQxLXgAEeuW by cosmin@linuxrocks.online
2023-08-01T18:06:59Z
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@thomzane This is horrible! I used to prefer and recommend HP printers because they had #hplip and until now they didn't have such issues.My first thought was "you should complain to customer service" but then I thought your message wouldn't get past the support team and the managers who made this mess would never hear it.Then maybe all you could do is voting with your wallet: return the product, leave a one-star review and buy something else. But that wouldn't help much either...
(DIR) Post #AYIMshPckNDztuBBuy by thomzane@daedal.io
2023-08-01T18:35:22Z
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@cosmin The printer didn't pull this on me until I recycled the box. My plan is to factory reset the device and connect it to a CUPS/SANE server on a SBC. Setting up all of that would be easier than installing the proprietary drivers the correct way on every person's computer that wants to print to make sure that this does not happen again. I also do not want to worry if someone else agreed to data sharing that I have explicitly not agreed with.
(DIR) Post #AYIP2uvDZbgobVxPuK by cosmin@linuxrocks.online
2023-08-01T18:59:39Z
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@thomzaneSounds like a good idea!
(DIR) Post #Aa1pm27xlB77DzHdQm by vitali64sur@mamot.fr
2023-09-19T19:27:25Z
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@thomzane What did you expect from a HP printer? ;PSeriously, forcing users to use "their" the way *you* want them to use it is clearly against user freedom
(DIR) Post #Aa1pm34SFhty9OeLbM by thomzane@daedal.io
2023-09-19T21:11:25Z
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@vitali64sur I expected it to just work like old HP printers did. Now it just works the way they want it to. I put that project aside, but I think the next step is to give this away and buy an old HP printer that only connects to a computer with USB.
(DIR) Post #Aa1pm3irpSECAjYcam by vitali64sur@mamot.fr
2023-09-20T05:36:09Z
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@thomzane Buy a Brother printer. I think these don't need an internet connection.
(DIR) Post #Aa1pm4RBAhfoOAI0f2 by thomzane@daedal.io
2023-09-20T14:28:41Z
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@vitali64sur Is there similar support for a cups server with Brother printers like HP has with the hplip package?
(DIR) Post #Aa1pm58mYaYGZOgpcm by vitali64sur@mamot.fr
2023-09-20T19:29:49Z
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@thomzane Some brother printers work driverless with cups
(DIR) Post #Aa1pm5oy1kIOgEQWNU by Suiseiseki@freesoftwareextremist.com
2023-09-22T14:53:10.122271Z
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@vitali64sur @thomzane Any half-decent printer supports IPP.hplip is best avoided as it's proprietary.
(DIR) Post #Aa1tYPwknso8rRnsVU by thomzane@daedal.io
2023-09-22T15:03:15Z
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@Suiseiseki @vitali64sur Do you have anything to backup your statement calling hplip proprietary? It seems to be GPL-2.0-or-later at a glance.
(DIR) Post #Aa1tYRsDdiMupxhHiS by Suiseiseki@freesoftwareextremist.com
2023-09-22T15:35:29.389042Z
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@thomzane I inspected an older version and soon found proprietary software, but I now inspected hplip-3.23.5 and found proprietary software as well.Sure COPYING says:HPLIP is free, open source software, distributed under the following open source licenses:GNU General Public License (GPL) v2MIT licenseBSD licenseGNU General Public License (GPL) v3Then I read down and well: "A small subset of HP devices require proprietary software technologies to allow full access to printer features and performance. These technologies cannot be open sourced. Because of this, HP is releasing binary plug-ins for each of these printers that work in conjunction with our Linux Open Source Printing Software to improve the printing experience for HP�s Linux Printing Customers. These binary plug-ins require the user to read and agree to a license agreement at the time of driver installation.", which makes it pretty clear that there's proprietary trickery at play.Under ppd/hpcups there are lots of proprietary ppd files, but I guess that's not software.hplip contains at least 2 proprietary binaries under;hplip-3.23.5/prnt/hpcups/libImageProcessor-x86_32.sohplip-3.23.5/prnt/hpcups/libImageProcessor-x86_64.sohttps://bugs.launchpad.net/hplip/+bug/1785230I'm sure there's many more issues but I need to check my older analysis first.There's also a bunch of proprietary plugins that they claim to be separate, but are clearly from a derivative work: https://developers.hp.com/hp-linux-imaging-and-printing/pluginsPretty much either;a. HP holds all the copyright and says the it's under the GPLv2-or-later, but is lying and using the GPLv2 and v3's good name so people don't realise it's proprietary. b. HP has made derivative works of existing GPLv2 and GPLv3 works and has committed copyright infringement by infringing the license on such works by making proprietary derivative works, but has avoided committing clear cut infringement by ensuring to release the existing source files under the same license.Any recent printer supports IPP{S}, so I recommend using that instead.
(DIR) Post #Aa1xpwoUG7DnXDYEl6 by thomzane@daedal.io
2023-09-22T16:16:54Z
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@Suiseiseki That is a problem. Looks like Debian and many other distributions strip that problematic blob out so it doesn't affect me. https://packages.debian.org/bookworm/hplip
(DIR) Post #Aa1xpxaLOBVDvdwSLw by Suiseiseki@freesoftwareextremist.com
2023-09-22T16:23:31.702238Z
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@thomzane Sure, but there's a lot of other parts of questionable licensing and I'm fairly confident that there is other proprietary stuff, as after all, HP intentionally put proprietary software in a release that was mean to be "open source".Hopefully, Debian patches all the proprietary parts out, but unless someone has checked every last file, you really can't be sure.
(DIR) Post #Aa22I65pkZ60EyLLHs by thomzane@daedal.io
2023-09-22T17:07:52Z
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@Suiseiseki I generally trust Debian maintainers to diligently follow the Debian Free Software Guidelines and patch out any questionable material. Their track record has historically been very good.
(DIR) Post #Aa22I6lJGMGyJbkSw4 by Suiseiseki@freesoftwareextremist.com
2023-09-22T17:13:25.830654Z
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@thomzane Well I wouldn't, as the Debian developers have taken a dump on the DFSG by rewriting it to allow for the Debian installer to install proprietary software without even asking.They call it "firmware", but that's a misnomer, as it's proprietary peripheral software and manufacturers only call it "firmware", as they intend that you're not able to replace such proprietary software.Their track record has been better than most distros, but I wouldn't call it "good".