- Family member has 720p webcam
- Family member buys shiny new 1080p webcam
- Family member plugs in shiny new webcam and gives me a videocall to test it
- New camera works flawlessly. I get to keep the old 720p cam. Yippee!!
...BUT THEN
- Family member goes to the website listed on camera's packaging and clicks the big blue download button
- download button installs custom usb driver and companion app
- companion app has twenty quadrillion toggles and dials spread across fifty billion tabs and sub menus. Family member spends all evening twiddling with it.
- No matter what, the image looks like crap. Too bright, but not enough contrast. Worse than it did originally.
- next day family member asks for his old 720p webcam back, I get to keep the 1080p webcam
I'm happy with my new webcam so I'm not complaining, but why do people do this?? Why do manufacturers make these shitty custom driver? The whole point of USB is to be plug-and-play without any custom software.
It fucks me off to no end that 30+ years after the boom in personal computing, there's been effectively ZERO progress on the usability/stability of printers.
Recently became the "printer guy" at work as well. Endless, daily tomfuckery. There is no fucking reason for there to be a "printer guy" in 2025.
Check out https://www.crowdsupply.com/open-tools/open-printer
I can't wait for it to be released.
I fear that it will get bought and crushed before it can generate any useful change.
I will not stand for this CUPS/IPP (internet printing protocol) erasure!
Most recent printers have supported internet printing protocol for years, which is web based and explicitly does not require printers. This is what CUPS has also moved towards.
macOS and Linux have had built in support for CUPS drivers/printers for decades, so it's really just a Windows problem, who insist on their own Microsoft print servers.
The printer side of things is pretty atrocious.