Hewlett-Packard: crap installers since 1939
I think this says it all:
That's the printer driver installer Hewlett-Packard sent out with my $A 1200 Color LaserJet CP2025. Naturally, it does none of the following:
And, as if all that is not awesome enough, there's this:
Wait for it...
Every drop-down menu in the driver dialog's custom tabs are like that. Maybe it's a code. It also assumes I am tri-lingual:
You just can't make this stuff up. Fortunately, these panels are for somewhat esoteric functions I will probably never use. (Well, I literally can't use them with this driver.) In any case, this is just woeful for a product costing $A 1200. I went to HP's website, and my installed version of the driver is still the current version available for download. That's as good as it gets.
Update: Installing the driver on a second machine, while still VISEtastic, showed no evidence of the user interface bugs captured above. On the first machine, I just re-started Safari (I was using a web page as a test document to print), and the print dialog righted itself. It is entirely possible, then, that the problem had nothing to do with HP. That doesn't make it right to bundle a VISE installer with a $A 1200 LaserJet, though.
That's the printer driver installer Hewlett-Packard sent out with my $A 1200 Color LaserJet CP2025. Naturally, it does none of the following:
- Tells me what it's going to install.
- Tells me where it's going to install it.
- Gives me the option of paring down the install.
- Provides any useful feedback about what it's doing as it proceeds.
And, as if all that is not awesome enough, there's this:
Wait for it...
Every drop-down menu in the driver dialog's custom tabs are like that. Maybe it's a code. It also assumes I am tri-lingual:
You just can't make this stuff up. Fortunately, these panels are for somewhat esoteric functions I will probably never use. (Well, I literally can't use them with this driver.) In any case, this is just woeful for a product costing $A 1200. I went to HP's website, and my installed version of the driver is still the current version available for download. That's as good as it gets.
Update: Installing the driver on a second machine, while still VISEtastic, showed no evidence of the user interface bugs captured above. On the first machine, I just re-started Safari (I was using a web page as a test document to print), and the print dialog righted itself. It is entirely possible, then, that the problem had nothing to do with HP. That doesn't make it right to bundle a VISE installer with a $A 1200 LaserJet, though.
I'm astonished you print enough to even half-way justify this kind of effort. I can't remember the last time I printed anything in any real volume.
ReplyDeleteHeh. Do you mean the effort of buying a printer? I don't print a lot, but when I do print, I like it to look nice, which means a laser. I was equivocal about colour, but went for it in the end. The other issue is that from time to time someone in the house will need to print out a large document, so we're pretty keen on automatic duplexing to save paper. (In fact, I will usually print 2-up and double-sided, using a quarter of the paper.) Duplexing adds a few hundred dollars to the price, but it makes me feel green.
ReplyDeleteYep, HP is shit. I bought one too, wish I hadn't.
ReplyDeleteGood printer, but what it did to my Mac wasn't worth it.