Date   : Tue, 30 Nov 2004 12:12:47 +0000
From   : Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk@...>
Subject: Re: Printers

On Tue, 2004-11-30 at 23:40 +1300, Bill Keesing wrote:
> At 04:34 a.m. 29/11/2004, Andrew W wrote:
> >That's atrocious thow isn't it? I mean changing the 'standard' port
> >from parallel to USB is one thing but making Windows the only OS
> >supported is another!
> 
> Unfortunately it is happening right through the peripheral market. Hardware 
> makers are taking the cheap and easy way out by passing off the functions 
> normally done by hardware components to the OS. As Windows is the 
> predominant operating system that is the one the hardware makers use as the 
> base for their drivers.
> 
> It is done on the pretense of making the hardware cheaper but basically it 
> is laziness and greed on the part of the makers as the money saved by the 
> makers is considerably more than that saved by the consumers.

To be honest, it's more the fault of the users. Very few people want to
pay for quality any more - price is the only thing that comes into it.
So as soon as one manufacturer produces a low cost product by whatever
means that *apparently* looks good to the average user, all the other
either have to follow or risk losing business. 

Same thing's happening everywhere, not just within the computing
industry - it's getting very hard to buy anything of any quality any
more without getting it custom made (which really *is* expensive;
justifiably so)

And people wonder why I stick with old cars, computer equipment and
consumer electronics - at least I know they're reliable and will outlast
any new product on the market :) (plus I don't get caught in the 'must
upgrade every few months' cycle)

cheers

Jules