Is Hewlett-Packard Dying?
Linked by Howard Fosdick on Fri 23rd Nov 2012 14:03 UTC
In the News Hard to believe, but articles are popping up at business websites claiming that venerable Hewlett-Packard may fail. In their most recent fiasco, HP wrote off a loss of $8.8 of their $11.1 US billion acquisition of Autonomy and have alleged fraud in the deal. Revenue is down 7% from a year ago and the stock has hit a 10-year low. The company is laying off 27K employees but that may not be enough. Some speculate HP might be broken up into parts with buy-outs involved. This article from last May offers a good in-depth analysis of how all these problems came to pass.
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RE[4]: Poor Support or Product
by emrehliug on Fri 23rd Nov 2012 22:41 UTC in reply to "RE[3]: Poor Support or Product"
emrehliug
Member since:
2009-12-27

Of course, I'll probably continue to get modded down for stating the facts, but--well, I guess the truth hurts some people ... I'm just saying to drop Wi-Fi where it makes sense (ie. buggy drivers or where availability is important; in other words, peripherals like *gasp* printers and scanners).


I have an HP wireless printer shared by two linux boxes. The fact is this printer works flawlessly. The fact is it was very easy and fast to setup. The fact is, if ever I should by another printer, Wi-Fi will be a must have feature. But these are my facts, and facts, strangely enough, are too volatile; and computer facts are specially subjective.

Reply Parent Score: 6

UltraZelda64 Member since:
2006-12-05

I have an HP wireless printer shared by two linux boxes. The fact is this printer works flawlessly. The fact is it was very easy and fast to setup.

Great. Sounds like you lucked out. If it works well and it's what you want, then good for you... I'm not telling anyone to abandon anything that they own that actually works. I'm just stating that Wi-Fi tends to be hit-or-miss in many devices.

The original poster was complaining about a shitty Wi-Fi connection; I'm just saying, well, duh... what did anyone expect with the pathetic state that Wi-Fi drivers are in, especially in a device that can't easily have such internal problems fixed? I've had problems in the early 2000s with Windows wireless drivers, and I still have problems with and dread Wi-Fi in Linux.

The fact is, if ever I should by another printer, Wi-Fi will be a must have feature. But these are my facts, and facts, strangely enough, are too volatile; and computer facts are specially subjective.

Just beware when buying that printer, as has been pointed out a few times now Wi-Fi drivers often suck, and embedded systems are not exactly the easiest to safely update the drivers to. You know what you want or need though, so by all means... if you really want or need it, go for it.


Personally, I'd rather save the time and potential frustration and put my money to better use by buying a printer that does what it is meant to do well (print) and leave the wireless router to do what it does well--provide access to that printer over the network, with or without wires, as needed. Less money spent on useless, potentially badly implemented features that provide duplicate functionality and are better implemented in other ways to begin with; more money spent toward performance and quality.

Added bonus: You'll have one less 802.11x device to potentially slow down your wireless network performance when 802.11y comes out. 802.11n has only been out for a few years now, and 802.11ac is already well on its way. Those embedded wireless devices in printers aren't exactly user-upgradeable.

But that's just me; obviously everyone is different. A lot of people go out and buy some cheap multi-function print/scan/fax/kitchen sink machine; I cringe at the very existence of those products. In the end, everyone's free to buy whatever they want, just as the companies are free to make them.

Reply Parent Score: 2