I recently decided my old Ink Jet (an old Epson 740) had enough of a torturous life and so I decided to replace it with a new Epson Photo Stylus 960. I got this one mainly because it can print on CDs which is pretty handy.

Figuring this being a new printer I'd have less problems than I had with the old one, which would get hung up occasionally if it ran out of paper or otherwise 'interrupted' the printing process and start spewing out garbage, which could not be stopped until I shut down the printer and the Windows Spooler. A whole lotta fun.

I figure new printer - they'll have good drivers all is well, right?

Think again. Software installation of this printer has been an absolute nightmare! First the CD would not load up. I put the CD in and the box would start to go into a hardware lock, looking for something on disk for about 2 minutes. Finally a failure dialog comes up about - get this - Shockwave not being installed, do I want to download it? How convenient that I need Shockwave to install a printer driver.

Ok, so no installation program - let's try and let Windows figure this one out on its own. Sure enough the P&P picks the printer and when I point at the CD it even finds the driver. But unfortunately the installation fails again half way through - the install doesn't like some DLL.

Three tries later I'm ready to tear somebody's head off! Ok, now off to the Epson site to download a newer driver. And it actually works on the first try. What a surprise. The driver itself works but none of the software monitors are enabled - well, that's another download. Another install, but the monitors still don't work. Windows sees the printer, my apps see the printer, but the monitor just sits and happily keeps searching for the printer. It's right here - over here on the right, dear. C'mon. Nope, just like a stubborn wife it doesn't wanna play <g>...

This printer has 8 ink cartridges - without the ink monitor it's going to be REAL fun trying to figure out when one of those eight tanks goes empty. Now was it the light magenta or Cyan cartridge that's fading???

Even more fun is the fact that the driver and monitors together take up about 10 megs of memory - and of course they don't go away when you're done printing. Just another of the 10 billion things installed that I can get rid off every day.

It's amazing to me how even today after years of building printers a company can still build such monumentally lame software. And although I've had my share of problems with Epson drivers, the situation is maybe even worse with HP printers. I really love HPs policy of never updating their drivers for some of the not so popular printers leaving you stranded with Win98 drivers that won't even start up in XP.

Again, I keep thinking about Aunt Sally needing to install her printer. Boy, she's really gonna have a good time with that one!

Amazing how technology marches on but the level of complexity seems to remain the same. We just get more crap piled on top with each new generation...

Ah I do feel better now... now I can go to sleep 'cleansed'...