Is there a free software printer only, no chip, cheap one for sale?

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tonlee
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Joined: 09/08/2014

Is there a free software printer only, no chip, cheap one for sale? A printer that can stay unused and ink will print?

Chris

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Joined: 04/23/2011

What do you mean by 'free software printer only' and 'no chip'?

There are some HP models that don't depend on any OS-loaded firmware/blobs/non-free drivers/etc. Many of these will work with Trisquel. We carry several of such models @ thinkpenguin.

If by no 'no chip' you mean they can be refilled that gets more complicated and I don't have a precise answer for you. I know with many of the HP laser printers they're refillable once you have replaced the DRM chip within the cartridges. They're pretty good as far as manufacturers go in this regard. The cartridges aren't so cheap that they only work once (if that), etc.

If your referring to the 'yellow dot tracking' issue the EFF has this update on that:

'(Added 2015) Some of the documents that we previously received through FOIA suggested that all major manufacturers of color laser printers entered a secret agreement with governments to ensure that the output of those printers is forensically traceable. Although we still don't know if this is correct, or how subsequent generations of forensic tracking technologies might work, it is probably safest to assume that all modern color laser printers do include some form of tracking information that associates documents with the printer's serial number. (If any manufacturer wishes to go on record with a statement to the contrary, we'll be happy to publish that here.)

Forensic investigations of the source of documents produced with other printing technologies are also possible, but, as far as we know, other kinds of printers do not deliberately encode their serial numbers in their output.'

It may be worth going with inkjet to counter the problem although as is stated above it's not clear that inkjet printers aren't also possibly impacted by an unknown method.

It would seem that knowledge of this alone should be enough to largely counter the problem:

1. Don't register your printer with the manufacturer
2. Don't send your printer in under any warranty
3. Don't use a credit card or other traceable means to purchase the printer
4. Use one or a collection of printers for things which would not identify you and never mix them (ie don't go sending the IRS a letter about your taxes and then use the same printer to print flyers that call for the overthrow of the government)
5. Be aware that when you buy the printer it may be possible to track it back to the store which it was sold at and in that way narrow down the search area or even pull video footage of the purchase/car in the parking lot/etc. Avoiding driving into the parking lot of the store or driving near it is wise, and purchasing in an area you don't reside/work/etc. That should make narrowing down the location of the user more challenging.

Free firmware is another area that I'd love to see someone tackle. Printers are difficult though as even if we got the firmware free'd for a particular model it likely wouldn't be on the market still by the time the efforts were done. It's not clear that the work wouldn't have to start all over again either with every generation. I'm not sure how much the firmwares/technology has changed. It might be such that it is easier to get future models free'd more easily once there is a free firmware for at least one line-up or similar, but I think we really just don't know, at this point.

Magic Banana

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I am a translator!

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vita_cell
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Joined: 07/19/2015

I'm tired fixing and hacking printers. All have chips with limited printing. In some printers you must to soldering wires and some switcher.

Some printer in color, can spy you. You can see it at h-node.

tonlee
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Joined: 09/08/2014

Thanks.
Free software was the printer will print on free software debian 8. No chip was the printer can be refilled. I got a hp 1610 not knowing about fsf. I have tested it with debian 8 and it prints. It prints and scans good quality. Copier has zoom in and out. I hardly use the printer. When I did I was able to refill a cartridge about 3 times. When refilled printer would print when restarted several times. I want another printer because it has begun to message "remove cardridge" dispite cardridge is rather new and not empty. I cannot get it to print.
Is there a reason why hp made linux drivers?
I would prefer a matrix printer like commodore. It has an ink ribbon. I have an electric typewriter. Uses it infrequently. When used it types. There are no small matrix printers for sale?

Chris

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Joined: 04/23/2011

I have no idea if a dot matrix printer would work... but it appears they still make them. Lexmark has a "Forms Printer 2581" that is a dot matrix printer and the company even appears to advertise it as supported in [GNU]"Linux". Though I don't know if it is free software friendly. The price is also quite high: $400 USD + range.