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Warning about Canon PIXMA iP3000/iP4000 series printers
We were considering buying a Canon PIXMA iP3000 because these are the
first printers we have ever seen that finally quit ripping people off quite so much on ink. The whole printer ink jet market, until now, has been a scam, making you spend an average of $40-$60 buy new print heads and cartridges for all three colors because one color runs out. That is like having to replace your gas tank, fuel pump, radiator, water pump, windshield washer tank and wiper motors, because you ran out of gas or got too low on radiator fluid. Oh, and by the way, there are no gauges, or transparent tanks, and no way to check the fluid levels. Just one idiot light that says you are low on one of your fluids. Time to replace all of the above to make sure you get the right one. The PIXMA printers are the first ones we have seen that have separate transparent cartridges for each color that you can see the ink level in and are easy to refill or replace without buying a new print head. However, Canon is trying to make sure you pay royalties to Apple or pay Microsoft to run on an insecure system full of spyware in order to use their printers. There is no printer control language (PCL) documentation or PPD files available. I called Canon's tech support at 1-800-828-4040 and they refused to provide any technical documentation to run their printers. Charlie, the supervisor I spoke with, said that they did not have that information, and that to have it would be of no use to them. I said, "Having the PCL documentation to provide to people in the open source community so that they can write drivers and open the market of millions of potential customers for your printers from the NetBSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and Linux communities is of no use to you?" For the most part, he kept evading questions about his statement. He also said they write their own drivers even though he kept claiming that they did not have the specifications to write drivers. He said the printers are made in Japan and they are the only ones who have the driver documentation. Yet he also claimed to have no email address or phone number to contact the branch in Japan. In other words, Canon is boycotting the open source community and trying to make you run only on proprietory commercial platforms in order to use their printers. -- Avoid the VeriSign/Network Solutions domain registration trap! Read how Network Solutions (NSI) was involved in stealing our domain name. http://inetaddresses.net/about_NSI.html |
#2
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On Tue, 07 Jun 2005 19:44:15 -0500, Vincent wrote:
We were considering buying a Canon PIXMA iP3000 because these are the first printers we have ever seen that finally quit ripping people off quite so much on ink. The whole printer ink jet market, until now, has been a scam, making you spend an average of $40-$60 buy new print heads and cartridges for all three colors because one color runs out. That is like having to replace your gas tank, fuel pump, radiator, water pump, windshield washer tank and wiper motors, because you ran out of gas or got too low on radiator fluid. Oh, and by the way, there are no gauges, or transparent tanks, and no way to check the fluid levels. Just one idiot light that says you are low on one of your fluids. Time to replace all of the above to make sure you get the right one. The PIXMA printers are the first ones we have seen that have separate transparent cartridges for each color that you can see the ink level in and are easy to refill or replace without buying a new print head. I recently bought an Epson Photo R320 - it has six individual ink tanks, and there is a utility 'mtink' which shows ink levels on the computer. Canon is well known in the Linux community for making boat anchors. |
#3
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If you do your research before you buy, you will find out exactly which
operating systems are supported. -- Cari (MS-MVP) Printing & Imaging "Vincent" wrote in message news:lcrpe.25872$DC2.6751@okepread01... We were considering buying a Canon PIXMA iP3000 because these are the first printers we have ever seen that finally quit ripping people off quite so much on ink. The whole printer ink jet market, until now, has been a scam, making you spend an average of $40-$60 buy new print heads and cartridges for all three colors because one color runs out. That is like having to replace your gas tank, fuel pump, radiator, water pump, windshield washer tank and wiper motors, because you ran out of gas or got too low on radiator fluid. Oh, and by the way, there are no gauges, or transparent tanks, and no way to check the fluid levels. Just one idiot light that says you are low on one of your fluids. Time to replace all of the above to make sure you get the right one. The PIXMA printers are the first ones we have seen that have separate transparent cartridges for each color that you can see the ink level in and are easy to refill or replace without buying a new print head. However, Canon is trying to make sure you pay royalties to Apple or pay Microsoft to run on an insecure system full of spyware in order to use their printers. There is no printer control language (PCL) documentation or PPD files available. I called Canon's tech support at 1-800-828-4040 and they refused to provide any technical documentation to run their printers. Charlie, the supervisor I spoke with, said that they did not have that information, and that to have it would be of no use to them. I said, "Having the PCL documentation to provide to people in the open source community so that they can write drivers and open the market of millions of potential customers for your printers from the NetBSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and Linux communities is of no use to you?" For the most part, he kept evading questions about his statement. He also said they write their own drivers even though he kept claiming that they did not have the specifications to write drivers. He said the printers are made in Japan and they are the only ones who have the driver documentation. Yet he also claimed to have no email address or phone number to contact the branch in Japan. In other words, Canon is boycotting the open source community and trying to make you run only on proprietory commercial platforms in order to use their printers. -- Avoid the VeriSign/Network Solutions domain registration trap! Read how Network Solutions (NSI) was involved in stealing our domain name. http://inetaddresses.net/about_NSI.html |
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On Tue, 07 Jun 2005 19:44:15 -0500, Vincent
wrote: However, Canon is trying to make sure you pay royalties to Apple or pay Microsoft to run on an insecure system full of spyware in order to use their printers Install Zone Alarm (free firewall) and you can have it block all outgoing traffic from those spyware. As far as the spyware's concerned you have a lousy internet connection and can't transmit anything at all. -- When you hear the toilet flush, and hear the words "uh oh", it's already too late. - by anonymous Mother in Austin, TX To reply, replace digi.mon with phreaker.net |
#5
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Vincent wrote:
We were considering buying a Canon PIXMA iP3000 ..... The PIXMA printers are the first ones we have seen that have separate transparent cartridges for each color that you can see the ink level in and are easy to refill or replace without buying a new print head. There were earlier models that had such tanks. In other words, Canon is boycotting the open source community and trying to make you run only on proprietory commercial platforms in order to use their printers. Canon is, but others aren't. I discovered Turboprint has drivers for most of the Canon models; they list the Pixma i3000, et al., as supported. Check http://www.turboprint.de/printers.html for further information. Al Preston |
#6
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In other words, Canon is boycotting the open source community and
trying to make you run only on proprietory commercial platforms in order to use their printers. Boycotting the open source community? Me thinks you are barking up the wrong tree. ftp://download.canon.jp/pub/driver/bj/linux/ I see the Pixus 4100 and 3100, which are the US Pixma 4000 and 3000 respectivly. These are binary only, not open source, but they are they do have linux drivers. I'm told they even work with the 4000R, but I've not tested this personaly as I'm a cheap ******* and only own the iP3000 and mP760. BSD couldn't tell ya, but but Linux drives exist. They won't help you install them, or at least that's what they told me, but if your running linux/bsd you should expect this. I also read somewhere that old mac systems require something about installing in classic mode? I don't know what that means, but could be worth looking into. It might mean your cruddy pos old BJ drivers might print on it. Even if these drivers didn't exist you could always use TurboPrint. Sure it's not open source, sure it costs about USD$39. But it is an option. |
#7
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Vincent wrote:
We were considering buying a Canon PIXMA iP3000 because these are the first printers we have ever seen that finally quit ripping people off quite so much on ink. But if you want your prints to last, you should use Canon premium paper. Have you checked the price of Canon premium papers? There is no free lunch. |
#8
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But if you want your prints to last, you should use Canon premium paper.
Have you checked the price of Canon premium papers? There is no free lunch. Why not Ilford? Will Ilford not last? I have many friends who used the S520 with Ilford paper which IIRC uses the same ink. So it's 64c a sheet. Ilford's Galerie fetches about 60c a sheet at the local camera shop. Costco's Kirland paper made by a *cough* unnamed Swiss maker for 15c a sheet. |
#9
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On Wed, 08 Jun 2005 14:52:56 +1200, Frederick
wrote: But if you want your prints to last, you should use Canon premium paper. Have you checked the price of Canon premium papers? There is no free lunch. 9 out of 10 times a cheap photo paper will work. Just hang them behind glass to prevent fading due to sunlight exposure. -- When you hear the toilet flush, and hear the words "uh oh", it's already too late. - by anonymous Mother in Austin, TX To reply, replace digi.mon with phreaker.net |
#10
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Impmon wrote:
On Wed, 08 Jun 2005 14:52:56 +1200, Frederick wrote: But if you want your prints to last, you should use Canon premium paper. Have you checked the price of Canon premium papers? There is no free lunch. 9 out of 10 times a cheap photo paper will work. Just hang them behind glass to prevent fading due to sunlight exposure. http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/...61,pg,3,00.asp Not up to date with the latest printers, but you still might find it interesting. I think your 9 out of 10 may be optimistic, but that of course depends on what "will work" means. |
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