Cautiously optimistic
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| helios Mar 21, 2011 8:52 AM EDT |
HP's well-established name in the marketplace may allow WebOS to succeed, however the Enterprise is hopelessly stuck with MS vendor lock-in. Been there - seen that. The good news is that HP should now begin to contribute even more to the kernel and Linux in general. My hope is that they actively contribute to LibreOffice, although they have less than a secondary interest in doing so. Two years ago, I was called out on a consult to measure the feasibility of moving a fairly large but local real estate agency to Linux. Of course, we first tried Ubuntu because of it's LTS capability. Problem was, this company had a megalith Ricoh print, copy and scan system that controlled almost everything. Look as I may, I could not find a bit of support for this system within the Ubuntu infrastructure. On a whim, and more out of desperation, I ran the (then) current Mandriva Live CD to see what was there. To my surprise and obvious amazement, that Ricoh system came to life, and I mean I didn't have to do anything to make it happen. Once I did a simple "add printer and network" function, the entire system ran like a champ. While it may have made me look smart, it was the ppa that did all the work. All I did was click a mouse a few times The interface for this system wasn't as pretty as it was in Windows, but it was perfectly functional. To this day, I am the support vendor for this system and much to my dismay, I am rarely called out for bill-able hours. That's why I publicly call BS on the German Foreign Ministry switching back to Windows XP. http://techie-buzz.com/foss/german-foreign-office-back-windo... From that report: ...the cost of adapting and extending it, for example in writing printer and scanner drivers, and of training, have proved greater than anticipated. The extent to which the potential savings trumpeted in 2007 have proved realisable has, according to the government, been limited – though it declines to give any actual figures. Users have, it claims, also complained of missing functionality, a lack of usability and poor interoperability. This will be briefly discussed at Texas Linux Fest in April If distros like Mandriva are incorporating this level of Enterprise print support into their distro, I have to wonder at the legitimacy or motives of this OS retrograde. My hope is that with HP putting it's efforts behind their WebOS, more driver support like this will be forthcoming. I can't see how it won't be. This is a huge risk for HP. |
| JaseP Mar 21, 2011 9:20 AM EDT |
It's looking like WebOS is shaping up to be what Maemo could have been & what Meego should have been (& could still be with more direction). Time will tell. |
| Steven_Rosenber Mar 21, 2011 1:48 PM EDT |
It never occurred to me that WebOS = more/better HP Linux drivers, but that would be great. |
| jdixon Mar 21, 2011 2:38 PM EDT |
> My hope is that with HP putting it's efforts behind their WebOS... Well, from past experience, I don't trust HP to accomplish anything. But we can hope. |
| helios Mar 21, 2011 3:56 PM EDT |
@ jdixon. My experience has been exactly the opposite. Every HP product I've plugged into my systems has just worked, and we've used a ton of HP stuff for HeliOS. It's gotten to the point that when it comes to basic print/copy/scan functions, HP is all we recommend although we do recommend only laserjets when possible. Ink, by the ounce is the most expensive liquid consumable on the planet. However, as of the past two years, we are finding superb Linux compatibility via Samsung peripherals as well. If HP is going to be producing an HP/Linux OS, it only stands to reason that they would produce drivers for the community as part of doing business. Wait...hold that last statement and let me add a caveat. That is unless they are bought by Oracle. |
| gus3 Mar 21, 2011 4:11 PM EDT |
@helios: My last I.T. employer's experience w/ laser vs. inkjet was just the opposite. Using an ink refill kit was far cheaper, per page, than laser toner, so I "inherited" their laser printer. Of course, that was six years ago. I'm still using the toner cartridge I bought for it. About three months ago, it finally started showing signs that the toner was running low. |
| jdixon Mar 21, 2011 4:19 PM EDT |
> My experience has been exactly the opposite. Every HP product I've plugged into my systems has just worked, Ken, their printers work fairly well. Their Laserjet printers tend to be well made. And some folks speak highly of their corporate level support. However, IMO, their computer systems tend to be uniformly junk, and their software loads on them are even worse then Dell's. Now, I can't speak to their servers, as I've only had user experience with them. |
| helios Mar 21, 2011 4:24 PM EDT |
Our office printer is a Samsung 2510. Simple little printer that would work through a collision of planets. We do a TON of printing and we are getting about 4000 pages per cartridge. Upside is that it is fast and cheap, downside is that it's black only. And that's cool for us as any color stuff we need reproduced usually has to be professional quality anyway. Can't beat that for a $79.00 printer. It's been in HeliOS service for over three years. I think I paid $33.00 for the new cart the last time we replaced. Driver support is superb and the latest ppa actually does ink levels for laserjets. I have not seen that before. We're lucky to get accurate inkjet ink levels in most drivers I've used...ahem, aside from HP. @ jdixon. You know, I cannot argue the software point with you, I tend to agree but then again, HP has been operating within a Windows environment. We have been donated a lot of HP's and yeah, the older ones tended to be flashy junk reminiscent of E-Machines. They plaster all the inside specs on the front, thinking they will impress the consumer. However, from their hyperthreads to their dual cores, we have a couple dozen in service now for over two years and haven't had to replace one. Every POS E-Machine we've deployed has had the PS burn out within six months. |
| jdixon Mar 21, 2011 4:31 PM EDT |
We've had a Brother HL1440 for something like 5 years now. We finally had to replace the toner cartridge last year. It's always worked great with both Windows and Linux. I've also heard good things about Samsung and Konica/Minolta. |
| rijelkentaurus Mar 21, 2011 4:44 PM EDT |
@Ken & @jdixon, Both Dell and HP depend on whether you're talking about the cheap consumer-level PCs or the higher-end workstations marketed only to businesses. Both have been great in my experience, but I have found Dell's business-class support to be better. (Dell's consumer-level support is absolute garbage, as is their hardware.) I have an advantage in that many of my clients are in the engineering field and buy the good stuff. |
| jdixon Mar 21, 2011 7:11 PM EDT |
> ...or the higher-end workstations marketed only to businesses. The software load is still lousy even on the business class machines, rijelkentaurus. :( |
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