Ask Slashdot: Best Options For a Standalone Offline Printing Station? 190
An anonymous reader writes My father is considering a Chromebook, but there is a problem: He occasionally wants to print. Chrome OS only talks to physical printers by Google Cloud Print, so the printer has to be online one way or another. But my father wants to surf over 3G, so he has no network infrastructure. Now what are the best options for a standalone printing station that works offline? I have a Raspberry Pi and a small touch display that I could spare, how about I prepared some scripts and called that the dedicated printing computer? Then what printers have ARM drivers available? Does anybody know a consumer-grade or small-office-grade printer that can print ordinary PDF docs directly from flash drives or memory cards? I have looked, but could not find one yet. The devices I found that print PDF docs directly only do so if the docs were made by the (proprietary) printer-related software or the printer itself. There are ways to turn PDF docs into series of JPG files. A lot of ordinary printers can print JPG files directly from flash media, should my father stick with this option? Also, what are secondary options in case the offline printing station does not work out? Should he consider buying a 3G-capable WiFi router (there are enough available) and set up a home network, then use Google Cloud Print? Should I just send my father to a copy shop? Or should he simply forget about the Chromebook and get an ordinary laptop with a common OS that can talk to printers by USB?
GNU/Linux (Score:4, Informative)
GNU/Linux (Score:2)
Better yet, skip the Chromebook altogether and get something like the Acer Aspire E11 [acer.com] and then install your favorite flavor of GNU/Linux. I bought one for $199 at MicroCenter, installed a 128 GB Crucial SSD ($79), 4 GB of Crucial DDR3L memory ($39), and an Intel Wireless-AC card ($19), and then installed Ubuntu 14.04. It cost under $350, everything worked right away in Ubuntu, and now I can do whatever I'd like with it.
Overheard at the googleplex (Score:3, Funny)
Why, in 2015, would anyone want to print on paper at home?
[finishes moccochoccolatte with aloe vera, hops on fixie and rides off before ridiculous low-crotch trousers get wrapped around chain, causing fatal accident]
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I partially get the "funny score 3", if you include the [...].
My wife & I have had it with ink-jet printers when we print so little, so are experimenting with doing what your "Why...?" suggests.
I successfully sent our xmas card list to Office Max which is open until 9pm and is about 1 mile away. Cost us under 2$ (since I walked over there !Exercise!).
Last night my wife wanted to make gluten free oatmeal cookies from an internet recipe. We took the laptop to the kitchen, propped it on the counter. *I* wa
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The second one is easy - it's none.
If you put eggs in, it's a cake, FFS.
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Why, in 2015, would anyone want to print on paper at home?
My wife likes to sew. There are a number of programs that let her print out pattern pieces, which she then lays out on the fabric for cutting.
I have occasionally printed and framed some of my photos for gifts.
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It's actually really easy to print from a Chromebook or Android device, it just needs you to have the printer connected to Google Cloud Print somehow. The OP's specific issue is that his father wants to use 3G, and thus only the Chromebook is connected to the internet and not the printer.
I would suggest getting a 3G modem/router. Then the Chromebook and the printer can both connect to it, as well as any other devices his father decided to get in the future like a tablet or set-top box. Then it is a simple m
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Which makes about as much sense as sending a parcel to your uncle in Nebraska so that when he sees a guy he works with he can give it to him so that next time he visits his son who lives across the street from you he can deliver it.
When you live in New Zealand.
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Yeah but that's google's problem, not the submitter's problem
Shipping and handling (Score:2)
It's the submitter's problem when, in the analogy, you have to pay "postage" both ways to your cell carrier.
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Like it or not the ChromeOS is based around the premise that internet access is always there and maintained by someone else.
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And you just failed the Turing test. Admirable job, though, Mr. AI, now you just need to learn humor.
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do you have any idea how arrogant it is for you to tell other people how they should live their lives ?
This is Slashdot, and that mentality is common here. It shouldn't surprise you.
Brother HL-4040 Printers (Score:4, Informative)
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Also Brother MFC-8480DN, prints PDF fine from USB drives that originate from many different programs. Only print I ever had fail used Adobe DRM to protect one of the layers, had to print that from Windows, because the bits needed to remain secret before being reproduced on a piece of paper. (sigh)
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Print PDF from USB drives.
We called this "sneaker net" in the old days. Only we used floppies - uphill in the snow - both ways - and we LIKED IT!
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Hi (Score:2, Informative)
1-I wouldn't have bought a Chromebook to begin with, instead, a Notebook running either Winbugs or Linux will be sufficent.
2-If you have a Raspberry PI and a wifi dongle and a powered USB hub to spare, you may can a 3G-WiFi AP
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The biggest issue with Windows would be using up the monthly caps for the 3G connection simply with Windows Update and antivirus updates.
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I've had good luck with HP on linux but canon printers require a lot of work to get right. Even then my canon i960 takes about 10 times as long to print a page from linux as it does my Mac. I'll never buy another canon printer.
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Huh, tell me more... I have the ~$100 Samsung ML-2851D B&W laser printer, and it works great under Linux, full duplexing and all. It's even easier to install the printer drivers in Linux than in Windows / MacOSX.
Wife would like to upgrade it to a color laser someday... I realize some of the Samsung multifunction printers will be a PITA with Linux, but there's gotta be a color version of this thing somewhere...
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you pi fanbois need to quit raising that hobbyist toy as a viable solution to people of the normal real world's needs. The processor performance is like a Pentium 2 at 250MHz, it only supports some hundreds of meg of ram, and the graphics performance is abysmal being like systems of 12 years ago. $80 can buy a multi-core system that will have tens of times the power of a raspberry
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you pi fanbois need to quit raising that hobbyist toy as a viable solution to people of the normal real world's needs. The processor performance is like a Pentium 2 at 250MHz, it only supports some hundreds of meg of ram, and the graphics performance is abysmal being like systems of 12 years ago. $80 can buy a multi-core system that will have tens of times the power of a raspberry
I agree... the Pi might be great for embedded applications, but too many people want to stick a keyboard/mouse/monitor on them and use them like a computer, and then whine about the challenges of ARM. Just get an netbook or even a low-end phone/tablet if you want a touchscreen! They'll even be cheaper than the Pi when you figure in the cost of cables, power supplies, peripherals... a case, a half-decent SD card... the Pi really comes with nothing.
And even for embedded applications, you'd probably first
My phone isn't this crippled (Score:5, Insightful)
How about just getting him a fucking computer that doesn't rely on internet access and the services of a company with a penchant for maliciously storing data about people, to send a document to a printer next to him?
Even an iOS device can print without an internet connection, if your printer supports AirPrint, so why would you accept such a crippled device?
Re:My phone isn't this crippled (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:My phone isn't this crippled (Score:5, Insightful)
I agree here, the cost of the Chromebook's savings will be negated by the "custom solutions" required to get it to do routine mundane tasks. Get him either a cheap Windows 8 device (HP has a couple in the CB's price range) or if the walled-garden/appstore is more his thing, an iDevice(TM).
The point of a Chromebook isn't cost savings, it's that it's maintenance-free. There's no malware to worry about and nothing to mess up. The same is pretty true of an iPad or an Android tablet, but presumably he wants a laptop form factor.
My mom wanted to get something and I encouraged her to get either a Chromebook or a tablet, but my dad insisted that those were crap and she should get a real computer, and he found a deeply-discounted laptop with Windows 8.1 on it, which was cheaper than most Chromebooks.
And two days later I was over at her house, cleaning off malware, installing AV, trying to fix configuration changes she'd accidentally made while trying to fix the problems she'd caused. I should have made my dad fix it, frankly. Windows is too much hassle. OS X isn't too bad, but Apple's premium prices are. Linux can be anywhere from impossible to ideal for a less-clueful user, but it may require some knowledge to set it up, and the notion is intimidating to many. ChromeOS is... safe, reliable and easy.
Except it can't print except via the cloud. That, incidentally, was the argument my dad used to insist on Windows for her. Google needs to add CUPS to ChromeOS, IMO. It's pretty much plug and play with most printers.
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How the hell do people actually get infected with malware all the time? The only malware I've been hit with was the nVir virus on a Mac in the early '90s, and the Welchia worm on Windows in the early '00s. How do people get infected all the time? I don't do anything special or magical, but I still don't get problems with malware.
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" Linux can be anywhere from impossible to ideal for a less-clueful user, but it may require some knowledge to set it up, and the notion is intimidating to many. ChromeOS is... safe, reliable and easy."
ChomeOS is Linux...
Actually Linux once setup can be very user friendly. Installing Windows can be just as big of a pain as Linux.
I really like the idea of ChromeOS. It is the right solution for the I want to use Facebook and email crowd.
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" Linux can be anywhere from impossible to ideal for a less-clueful user, but it may require some knowledge to set it up, and the notion is intimidating to many. ChromeOS is... safe, reliable and easy." ChomeOS is Linux...
Obviously. Though it's configured with a rather different userspace than most Linuxen.
It's at the ideal end of the spectrum... because someone knowledgeable set it up to be that way.
Actually Linux once setup can be very user friendly. Installing Windows can be just as big of a pain as Linux.
Normal users don't install Windows. They do have to manage the steaming pile of crap, though, or find someone else who will.
I really like the idea of ChromeOS. It is the right solution for the I want to use Facebook and email crowd.
Exactly.
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Re: My phone isn't this crippled (Score:2)
Some AirPrint compatible devices support ad-hoc mode, and even if they don't its hardly expensive to setup compared to data costs for uploading and downloading every document you want to print over 3G/4G
A co
Cloud Print printer + wifi hotspot ? (Score:5, Informative)
The easiest way is probably to simply get a Cloud Print-ready printer, and a wifi router. Printer and Chromebook connect via wifi. No messing with card/sticks...
https://www.google.com/cloudpr... [google.com]
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He doesn't say that at all. He just can't interface his printer to Google without an intermediary device.
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He doesn't say that at all. He just can't interface his printer to Google without an intermediary device.
Meh, disregard. His issue isn't with Google, but rather that he has no home internet connectivity to connect the printer up to.
You can do it with your raspberry pi. (Score:5, Insightful)
Plug the pi into the printer and then put it on a wireless network. You can print offline that way.
That said, I don't get the point of chromebooks. They're not any cheaper then the cheap laptops you can find these days. Go to newegg. Same price basically and you get a proper operating system.
Chrome is a stupid OS. I don't know why they don't just install android on them. There are lots of printer apps for android.
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Well said. Chromebooks are crippled by design. With all the reduced functionality and privacy issues they should be giving them away, then it would cost what it's actually worth.
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With all the reduced functionality and privacy issues they should be giving them away, then it would cost what it's actually worth.
Privacy issues? Sure, if you're not going to use Chrome at all then I could see where you're exposing your bookmarks/etc to Google (though you can disable this if you want to). However, in general you're far more secure with a Chromebook than you would be with a conventional laptop. When was the last time you knew somebody get hit by Cryptolocker or whatever using a Chromebook? Heck, even if they did encrypt all your files on a cloud service almost all of them keep historical snapshots so you can just r
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Same price basically and you get a proper operating system.
Your proper operating system most likely:
1. Isn't easy to set up with full-disk encryption. Certainly it isn't set up by default.
2. Isn't well-hardened against viruses.
3. Doesn't support full code-signing to prevent undesired tampering.
4. Doesn't sync ALL settings to the cloud so that you can just wipe it and restore it anytime you want to.
5. Doesn't support full management via Google Apps for enterprise deployments.
Or, if it does support most of those, then chances are you can't easily disable any of
Re: You can do it with your raspberry pi. (Score:2)
the difference is one system is locked down and Google ultimately controls it. with any proper OS - I control it. chrome does whatever Google says it can do. I am not paying without control.
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the difference is one system is locked down and Google ultimately controls it. with any proper OS - I control it. chrome does whatever Google says it can do. I am not paying without control.
Chromebooks aren't locked down unless you want them to be. Every one has a switch which disables secure boot and you can flash whatever you want on it, including ChromiumOS. Flipping the switch does wipe the device for security, which is the approach Google takes with Android as well.
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When printing perfectly works locally I need to route it to the Goo and back so that the gobbermint can inspect it ???
Printing doesn't work locally on virtually any computer without vendor-supplied drivers. I doubt Google does it they way they do so that the "gobbermint" can inspect it, but rather because as everybody who has tried it has discovered, nobody supports printing on anything other than Windows or maybe OSX.
Besides, if the "gobbermint" really cares what is on your computer, they know already. I doubt they really care what OS you're running.
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Don't necessarily even need a Pi. If he has a smartphone, he could tether the chromebook to that, transfer the files and print from the smartphone.
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My understanding is that he's setting this up for his dad that probably doesn't want to deal with all that. The wants this to execute quickly and easily.
Really, I don't think this is terribly practical. Chromebook is badly set up for this sort of thing.
I'd dump the chromebook and give him a cheap 2 in 1 laptop/tablet that has a more flexible OS on it.
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lots of printer apps for android now... you go to your manufacturer and in most cases they have an app that is compatible with most of the printers from the company.
Re: You can do it with your raspberry pi. (Score:2)
wifi
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Don't give your family admin access. They're apparently messing with settings.
Do you know how often I have to fix a problem on my windows laptop? Maybe once a month.
So I lose 12 nights a year maybe. But that is misleading because I have many things I can do and gain all the time because the systems are more flexible.
Take this poor fellow trying to print but he can't because of the stupid limitations of the chromebook.
I can plug a printer with a USB OTG cable directly into my phone and print. And yet the chr
How often? Chromebooks very good for specific ppl (Score:5, Insightful)
How often does he print, and how often does he need to print? I make the distinction because many people who grew up with paper use "print" as "save". They print it so they'll have it in case they need it later. Some of these people can take to saving documents rather than printing everything and it might be good and useful as a training aid if printing were slightly less convenient. Other people actually need to print quite often, and some people print maybe twice per year. If dad prints twice per year, the Kinko's service that prints to the FedEx Kinko's around the corner might be good.
Some uber-nerds, or wannabe uber nerds, shout "get a real computer!". Well my wife has had several "real" computers, running various operating systems. Her favorite device, the one she uses all day every day, is her Chrome book. I see why. She can leave it laying around and whenever she picks it up it's instantly ready to do what she needs to do. She charges it maybe a couple of times per week. It has been completely reliable and simple - she never needs to ask her computer geek husband for help. It is IDEAL for certain people.
I say this as a guy who has personally owned a $10,000 network switch and whose name is in the kernel changelog - I know real computers. I have systems with sixteen hard drives each. Those monsters are well suited to their task, and the Chromebook is well suited to its task.
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IMO Google needs to fix the print problem. Being able to print a document is an expectation of computers, and the "solution" they have is a crappy one.
I agree that Chromebooks need to be able to print to a USB-connected printer, but I disagree that Cloud Print is crappy. It's non-functional where you don't have net connectivity, but everywhere else, it's awesome. In my experience it's so much more reliable than ordinary Wifi printer connections, and even some USB printer connections that I always use Cloud Print first, if it's available. haven't even bothered to configure my laptop with drivers for my home printer. That approach is fiddly, while the clou
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Why on earth would you want to be connected to a USB printer. Why on earth would anyone buy a USB printer? A laser (either colour or mono) with ethernet plugged into the router is almost always the correct solution to printing. Anyone claiming that lasers are rubbish for photos, that's true, but inkjet printing is rubbish full stop, and it works out cheaper and better just to send them to a photo printing service and have them printed on real photographic paper, while using a laser for everything else.
Remem
you think Windows is Linux? Moron (Score:2)
Wintel: Windows on Intel
You think Linux "panders to wintel".
More proof that aside from being 100% completely devoid of social skills, you also have zero technical knowledge. You're not a nerd, you're just a dweeb.
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*yawn* another "I worked on Linux boxes so I know stuffas" claim
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Mel, I thought you were dead - or at least still using drum memory instead of that new fangled core stuff
Solution: USB Router (Score:3)
Get a USB pocket router (the size of a pack of Wrigley's gum), which will let him turn his 3G connection into a hotspot whenever he plugs it in.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/produ... [amazon.com]
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And watch print jobs use 23 MB of valuable data quota: 10 MB to send it to the Butt [google.com] and 10 MB to get it back, plus 15% for framing overhead.
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What?
I've never had a Chromebook, but it has to send stuff to the cloud in order to print on a local network?
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What?
I've never had a Chromebook, but it has to send stuff to the cloud in order to print on a local network?
Google Cloud Print (which works on Android devices and on any Windows/OS X/Linux machine with a Chrome browser) sends your print jobs to Google, which routes them to the cloud-connected printer you select. It's actually quite convenient in a lot of ways. It means you don't have to configure the machine you're printing from for the printer you're printing to. It also means you don't have to be in the same physical location as the printer to print... which seems less than useful if you're trying to print a pi
Dads want prints (Score:2)
My dad also likes having a printer. I don't. They're high maintenance, and if that isn't bad enough, we all know the crap that ink jet manufacturers pull to drive our costs up even more.
I tried to persuade him that he didn't need a printer, but got nowhere. He still writes checks and orders more checkbooks when he runs low, sometimes prints out emails, and other absurdities from not connecting with what technology can do. He keeps his contact list on a handwritten sheet of paper beside the monitor, ra
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If you were to buy a good printer and not a $29 inkjet you would not have those issues, printers still have a place, and it is not just those paper centric shoppinglists, you never know when you may need to print a color coded luggage tag, or a print at home gift card, ....
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He still writes checks and orders more checkbooks when he runs low
Probably because the fee to send birthday money as a check is less than as a prepaid MasterCard or Visa card.
sometimes prints out emails
Because that's the easiest way of sharing something in person with somebody who happens not to subscribe to smartphone service.
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Because that's the easiest way of sharing something in person with somebody who happens not to subscribe to smartphone service.
Bluetooth file transfer.
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That's fine if they're carrying a device that accepts Bluetooth file transfer. Or are you claiming that only a vanishingly small percentage of people don't carry such a device everywhere?
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Or are you claiming that only a vanishingly small percentage of people don't carry such a device everywhere
Fewer and fewer every year. Some older phones and some "Feature" phones can do it. I personally had a Razr V3xx before I got my first Android phone, even it could do bluetooth file transfer.
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I have a used, pre-Carly HP Laserjet. It's still running on the original toner cartridge. WiFi enabled with an AP in bridge mode so it can live in a dusty corner where it isn't in the way.
This is a much better solution for the occasional hardcopy than maintaining an inkjet with consumables more expensive than gold.
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They're high maintenance, and if that isn't bad enough, we all know the crap that ink jet manufacturers pull to drive our costs up even more.
A laser printer is far less maintenance-intense. They do have their costs, but per-page they tend to be really low. A postscript-compatible printer will work on anything from a 30-year-old VAX to whatever OS you're running 20 years from now.
I hardly print anything, but I do occasionally need to print. Heck, I'll be printing my tax forms in a few weeks, because it is far cheaper than paying some company to file for me because the US government won't just let you do it for free via a government-run website
standard gnu.linux distro (Score:3)
a standard gnu/linux distro like debian, when installed on that ARM11 device, can have CUPS installed on it with no difficulty: CUPS has absolutely nothing to do with ARM itself, especially if you get a proper printer that doesn't try anything stupid like ship proprietary drivers (.deb files) directly off their own web site. basically if you get an HP printer you'll be fine. i did get the absolute latest 3-in-1 printer from Curry's last month, and i did have to install hplip from source but that's because the printer required hplip 3.1.16 and the version of debian i had for a client only had 3.1.12 - however amazingly HP's ready-to-go compilation script walked through the process of installing the prerequisites and got it all done. kinda impressive.
anyway so printing is not a problem. you are then going to *not* get him a chromebook, you're going to replace the OS (as someone else suggested) or you are going to sell the chromebook on ebay and get him a 200 quid Lenovo B30-50 from Tesco's or ebuyer.com or something similar (a big 15in 1366x768 LCD - awesome) - then you're going to install Debian GNU/Linux on that, too. setting up 3G dongles is really easy: remember to install the usbmodeswitch package. there is plenty of advice out there on setting up 3G dongles - remember to look up and set the correct APN settings in wvdial.conf (or whatever you end up using)
then, to make sure that he can print remotely, you're going to install a VPN on both devices (i recommend openvpn however tinc would do just as well and is slightly easier to set up) - both the ARM11 print server and the laptop, and you're going to either use the server that you're already maintaining, or you're going to ask a friend if you can put a VPN on their server, *or* you're going to get *another* of those ARM11 devices and send it to these guys:
http://raspberrycolocation.com... [raspberrycolocation.com]
basically for $EUR 36 per year they will host you an ARM11 device on a 100mbit/sec link. the power requirements and size are so small that it's perfectly feasible.
so that's what you're going to do... or not. it's a lot of work to set up, but if those are the requirements (remote printing access) then that's what needs to be done. it's going to be costly, however, as both the ARM11 device and the portable device will *both* need 3G connectivity.
honestly i can thoroughly recommend going a different route, as follows:
* go to a local three networks store and buy a Huawei MIFI (3G+WIFI gateway) device
* go to Maplin's and get a "mobile" 2-port WIFI router. i looked one up that could be re-flashed with OpenWRT.
* once the firmware is re-flashed on the "mobile" 2-port WIFI router, change it to be a *CLIENT* of the Huawei MIFI device.
* also set up the WIFI router to "bridge" mode (between the WIFI and the 2 ports: make them all on the same LAN space)
* plug the ARM11 device into one of the 2 LAN ports.
* associate the laptop with the MIFI's WIFI network as well
now you have the ARM11 device set up as a printer on the same (bridged) LAN as the WIFI devices, including the MIFI and the laptop. if you have installed OpenWRT as i suggest then you can also install the OpenWRT openvpn package on it (or tinc), and you then have 24x7 access to the systems on the network, and can manage them remotely *including* logging in to the ARM11 device and clearing out any stuck print jobs without needing to drive N+ miles.
this is what i have set up for a client (in one form or another). with this above 2nd scenario you are _still_ not going to get a chromebook, you're going to get a laptop with debian installed that you can actually manage (including remotely). the difference is that it'll be easier for your father because it will be internal WIFI, not a dangling external USB 3G modem. wicd-client is much easier to comprehend, i find, than the 3G management programs for GNU/Linux. err, there's WIFI networks and errr, there's a place where you press "connect" and errr that
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If that's your idea of a simple solution, you're doing it wrong.
1. He hasn't bought a Chromebook yet, so he can, for the same price, buy a "real laptop". Problem solved.
2. Who says the submitter is living in Europe? Your solution fails then.
3. Linux does NOT have all the printer drivers, and some of the ones that DO exist don't let you access all the features. Under linux, I can't scan, can't do color printing - I had to save on usb. The b/w laser would only print at the lowest resolution. Waste of t
Canon MX870 (Score:2)
If you really must go the route of keeping the Chromebook, I would suggest the Canon MX 3/4 in one printers. I myself have an MX870 model (printer/fax/copier/scanner), it's WIFI, and it has a USB port, an SD port, a compact flash port and an MS Duo port. From a USB stick I've printed PDFs, DOCs, text files, jpegs without a problem. I've also printed jpegs right off an SD card. It also works in the other direction; I've scanned some docs/images and saved them directly onto a USB stick.
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It is a bit of a step backward when you have to transfer data to a printer using the modern equivalent of a floppy disk. It should only be a convenience feature, not the normal mode of use.
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Oh I agree 100% with you. The OP asked if something like this existed and I was just pointing out that it did.
Don't get a USB printer, get a networked printer (Score:2)
Get a printer that runs over WIFI. For example, the Canon MX922. Then it doesn't matter where the computer OR the printer is in the house... it can just be any of the computers in the house. There might be better compatibility with linux drivers with an HP printer though (if running linux). MACs need the appropriate driver. Windows just has it typically.
I've had nothing but trouble connecting USB printers to any open-source OS. It just isn't reliable. I wound up using my windows game box as the print
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>> I've had nothing but trouble connecting USB printers to any open-source OS
Pretty much all the printers I've owned (more by chance than direct choice) have been HP.
My current printer, a 10 year old HP PSC-950 (printer/scanner/fax) works better under linux than it ever did under windows and was easier to set up under Linux than windows. I have no experience with other brands but it seems the HP linux drivers make HP printers simply plug and play.
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The end user in this case won't have a wifi network (there is just one computer with 3G modem), so in this case you need to buy and set up a wifi router or access point, as long with a wifi printer instead of just one printer and a cable, and remember to connect the computer to the wifi network when needing to print.
I find it just a silly bit complex.
A printer is likely to work under linux, at least Canon and HP (seen a Canon laser color just work, though not the built-in scanner : need to scan to a USB sti
It's getting old Google...Stop already... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:It's getting old Google...Stop already... (Score:5, Interesting)
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There are occasions dear Google when someone is offline. I don't want to have to store my Earth KML files on Drive to view on mobile Earth app.
What? You want to use an online service when you're offline? What next you want to browse the internet?
I don't want to have to connect my android phone via USB to copy or move things around on my SD card.
Install a file manager. There's about 100 of them in the app store.
I don't want to have to print over the internet.
I'm trying to figure out what you're printing from your phone where you are using a printer that doesn't have access to either a computer, or the ability to simply print autonomously. Personally the only time I've printed from my phone I used my file manager to pop the file on the SD card and then stuck that into the printer and printed it
My father is considering a Chromebook, (Score:2)
>My father is considering a Chromebook,
You have found out why a Chromebook doesn't work for him.
Buy him a real computer you cheapskate.
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>My father is considering a Chromebook,
You have found out why a Chromebook doesn't work for him.
Buy him a real computer you cheapskate.
Option 1: Buy a real computer.
Visit once every few weeks to remove spyware, deal with cryptolocker, install service packs, etc. Buy a backup solution or deal with the results of a hard drive crash. If the house burns down you most likely lose all your backups too. If the laptop gets lost then deal with identity theft.
Option 2: Be a cheapskate and buy a Chromebook.
Have your dad mention at holidays how well his computer is working for him. If it is damaged/destroyed/lost, just buy a new one and sign in a
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I find macbooks work better for my non technical family members.
I tried giving them Chromebooks once and there were all sorts of compatibility problems with printers, my daughter's school website and media sources. Windows PCs were a pain to manage and keep secure. Macbooks have better security properties and take less of my time.
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I find macbooks work better for my non technical family members.
I tried giving them Chromebooks once and there were all sorts of compatibility problems with printers, my daughter's school website and media sources. Windows PCs were a pain to manage and keep secure. Macbooks have better security properties and take less of my time.
I can't imagine that any website would work on Chrome on OSX that wouldn't work on Chrome on ChromeOS. Of course, browser compatibility issues are nothing new, and you are limited to Chrome on ChromeOS. ChromeOS doesn't have any "compatibility problems" with printers per se - it just can only print via CloudPrint, which means either your printer supports it, or it is hooked up to something else which does (like a PC running the Chrome browser or a print server). The printing issue is the biggest pain wit
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>I can't imagine that any website would work on Chrome on OSX that wouldn't work on Chrome on ChromeOS.
In our case, the web software my daughter's school used would refuse to upload a file (homework) from a google drive, but would do fine off the local drive, which isn't an option on the chromebook.
After going around the issue a couple of times, I gave up, headed to the Apple store and things have been fine since.
I know other school software works with chrome fine, but this was not that software.
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>I can't imagine that any website would work on Chrome on OSX that wouldn't work on Chrome on ChromeOS.
In our case, the web software my daughter's school used would refuse to upload a file (homework) from a google drive, but would do fine off the local drive, which isn't an option on the chromebook.
All chromebooks have local storage. It is used primarily for these sorts of situations.
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It's well hidden on the Chromebook we used.
The issue is not so much that it can't work, than how much effort I have to go through to make it work for other people, Smooth sailing it was not.
Two options (Score:2)
1) get a cloud print capable printer
2) set up a standard windows/Linux machine to run the cloud print service and publish a standard printer to that service....then you just share the printer to him (this is what I did)
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If not for that little hiccup, your solution would be quite adequate. If you do that this way, you run the risk of having to courier all of your father's print jobs to him.
get a damn computer. (Score:2)
Epson workforce printer - with mobile apps & w (Score:2)
My printer recommendation is the Epson WF-2540 printer. This is now connected to the router using a regular ethernet cable
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Or get a wifi hotspot and attach it to a network enabled printer. Google FreedomPop, they have cheap wifi cellular plans. Presumably the bandwidth needs are low.
Huh? (Score:5, Funny)
My dad is thinking of getting a car but he lives in the ocean. Is there some way for him to get to the grocery store? I have an Arduino and and a Raspberry pi.
Poseidon
Consider a cheap adapter (Score:2)
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Bluetooth is not supported for printing [google.com] on ChromeBook.
There is an Android app [google.com] that allows printing via "Wi-Fi or Bluetooth", but it appears not to have been ported to ChromeOS.