October 26, 2003
The Weakest Link
Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Panther's great. No, really... I installed it and have used it for awhile now, and it's just fantastic. Apple's really done it again. Exposé, new Finder, all of it. it's great. But that's not what I want to talk about. Today I want to talk about something that has been a problem of mine for what seems like years, and it just keeps getting worse. I am, of course, talking about the decidely un-Mac-like experience of using a printer with a Macintosh these days.
See, the problem started when Apple stopped making printers years ago, relying instead on third parties for whom manufacturing printers is their "core competence" to supply us all with printing technologies. The problem with that is that although these companies like EPSON and Lexmark indeed do make great printers, their ability to produce decent software is feeble at best, and their ability to write Mac software is non-existant. They just can't do it. They don't get it. They don't understand. Both of these companies suck so bad at producing Mac software that it amazes me that Apple features them promiently on their 'Store' web site. Apple should be ashamed.
Let's take Lexmark for example, since they're the ones I'm currently most annoyed with. I'm sitting here with my Panther system purring along nicely. In a terminal window I have top running and as I type this I can glance over there and see the "Lexmark X83 Monitor" application's CPU usage vary between 2% and 80%, probably averaging out to the 10-20% range. That's 10-20% of my CPU being used to manage a printer that's not printing anything. It's just sitting there, attached to the computer. If I disconnect the USB cable, the Lexmark Monitor freaks out and starts consuming a great deal more CPU, up to 102.6% (and I swear I saw it over 116% one time). It's a good thing I have two CPUs.
But it gets better. The printer doesn't even work under Panther, or rather, the driver doesn't work under Panther. If I was going to be charitable, I'd maybe give Lexmark a chance to update their software, but the last time I did that it was with EPSON and I waited for a year after OS X came out until I threw away the printer and bought a new one, swearing I'd never buy another EPSON product. Everyone in the world knew that Panther was coming out and if Lexmark can't have updated drivers ready on time, then... well... they suck.
"But wait," I hear someone saying, "your printer has been discontinued, so you can't expect Lexmark to provide support for an ancient product." I've considered that, and I don't buy it. It's widely believed to be the case that we're in a Gillette situation these days with printers - printers are dirt cheap so that they can sell you pricey ink. If Lexmark doesn't provide me with an updated driver, how can they expect me to keep buying their viciously overpriced ink cartridges? The only way that can happen is if I go out and buy another Lexmark printer, and why the hell would I do that?
Some might say, "But Brent, it was Apple that broke your printer driver, not Lexmark. You should blame Apple." This is true to some extent. But my take on the issue is that Apple's motivation (and it's working really well) is to improve their products in order to make me happy and keep me as a customer. As a strategy, that's working for me. Over my lifetime I've owned so many Apple computers that I can't remember them all -- at least ten -- and that doesn't count all the software, books, clothing, accessories, my iPod, my Newton, and ... yes... the printers that I've owned with a little Apple on them -- the ones that worked with every system software update. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that I've spent $50K on Apple products so far, and I don't feel bad about that number. I think I've got my money's worth. That's not how I feel when I buy ink these days, and certainly not how I'll feel when Lexmark support replies and tells me that I'm s.o.l. if I want to use my printer with Panther.
To paraphrase Chuq, my take on Lexmark is they want my money, not my business. Well, screw them. They're on the blacklist with EPSON and the RIAA.