The things one learns...

[Feathers McGraw]

I shouldn't have to try to figure out how to get rid of that icon from my status bar if I'm not connected to an HP printer. Currently, my laptop, running OpenSUSE, has the icon and it's not connected to the printer.

Don't you use the icon to tell your computer to connect to that printer? If it was hidden until you were connected, it would be a lot less useful.

[Buddlespit]

I see tek got himself banned. I really hope it's not because he vehemently disagreed with an admin.

To be honest, I think he makes a very valid point and I think a couple of you here are missing what he's saying, either by misinterpretation or willful ignorance. And to expound on a small point made earlier, I shouldn't have to try to figure out how to get rid of that icon from my status bar if I'm not connected to an HP printer. Currently, my laptop, running OpenSUSE, has the icon and it's not connected to the printer. Nor can it find the printer on the print server. I haven't tried to delete hplip yet. But once it annoys me enough, I will.

[Feathers McGraw]

On my Kubuntu hplip images are here: /usr/share/hplip/data/images.
I suppose one could replace the offending images with a picture of your cat or your girlfriend's... well we won't go there.

I have used HP printers for over 10 years now with mostly good results. They are not perfect but they don't suck too bad.

Ken

Lol! Not a bad idea! The cat, that is...

[SteveRiley]

they don't suck too bad.

In today's IT world, this is what goes for praise. Sigh. Will we ever see high-quality products again?

[lcorken]

On my Kubuntu hplip images are here: /usr/share/hplip/data/images.
I suppose one could replace the offending images with a picture of your cat or your girlfriend's... well we won't go there.

I have used HP printers for over 10 years now with mostly good results. They are not perfect but they don't suck too bad.

Ken

[Feathers McGraw]

The printer is something the user needs to add by going through a setup dialogue, though, which makes it a little different to the examples you gave.

If the distro auto installs the Nvidia driver, the user doesn't need to do anything, so there's no need for the icon. Same with flash.

The icon serves a purpose, making it easy to set up an HP printer. It doesn't encourage people to install proprietary software, and I can't think of a better icon (can you?).

Even if the utility was hidden in system settings, the HP logo would still be the most useful and informative image to choose.

Feathers

[tek_heretik]

Dude, it's not proprietary, that's the point.

HP printers are better supported on Linux than most others because of HPLIP, HP have contributed to the FOSS drivers for their own printers. This is what we need more of, not less!

I do, however, understand the objection to having the logo on your desktop... but then again, what else could they use? It's specific to HP printers, so a generic printer icon would be misleading.

Feathers

It's still corporate-presence-ware, FOSS or not, a slippery slope, the maintainer could have put an entry in the Kmenu for installation, that's the point, because not everybody owns an HP printer, it just comes down to advertising, we too are a 'market segment'. When installing a distro and it 'sees' an nVidia GPU and auto installs the driver, why not enable the nVidia system tray icon too? Maybe an Adobe icon too or the KDE system settings Flash utility by default? I'm ok with hardware vendors supporting Linux, I'm not OK with a maintainer advertising for them, that simple, bloat is bloat.

[Feathers McGraw]

Who cares what package it came from Steve? The fact is IT IS PROPRIETARY and the Kwheezy maintainer decided to make a an OBVIOUS default, in your zeal to always prove me wrong, you yet again missed the point, FYI, Kwheezy was loaded with other undiserable features but I couldn't be bothered to mention all of them. Like you have shown in the past Steve, you are OK with certain corporations' behaviour, I on the other hand don't even use Google for ANYTHING anymore because of their behaviour, but then again, this distro is the little sister to one of the snoopiest distros ever so I'm not surprised.

Dude, it's not proprietary, that's the point.

HP printers are better supported on Linux than most others because of HPLIP, HP have contributed to the FOSS drivers for their own printers. This is what we need more of, not less!

I do, however, understand the objection to having the logo on your desktop... but then again, what else could they use? It's specific to HP printers, so a generic printer icon would be misleading.

Feathers

[tek_heretik]

The logo comes from the GUI interface (package hplip-gui on Ubuntu) to the HP Linux Printing and Imaging System (package hplip on Ubuntu). Hewlett-Packard provides resources for the open source community to use their products, which is better than what most other manufacturers do. The maintainers of KWheezy have decided to include this utility, given their stated desire: "To be easier for Linux or Debian newcomers. It is full-featured, with all the applications, plugins, fonts and drivers that you need for daily use, and some more." Can't imagine why you would feel offended and disgusted that someone wants to make Linux easier for people.

Who cares what package it came from Steve? The fact is IT IS PROPRIETARY and the Kwheezy maintainer decided to make a an OBVIOUS default (enabling the system tray icon is proof of that), in your zeal to always prove me wrong, you yet again missed the point, FYI, Kwheezy was loaded with other undiserable features but I couldn't be bothered to mention all of them. Like you have shown in the past Steve, you are OK with certain corporations' behaviour, I on the other hand don't even use Google for ANYTHING anymore because of their behaviour, but then again, this distro is the little sister to one of the snoopiest distros ever so I'm not surprised.

So in the next Kubuntu release, have EVERY corporate proprietary utility known to man pre-installed and running (put lots of icons on the desktop and enable every system tray icon, lol) for the dumb masses since they are too clueless to click on a script icon for installation, sounds like a pre-loaded Windows name-brand PC/laptop to me, you guys are making me laugh.

[GerardV]

I think the HP utility is one of the most useful bits of software around. Without it, i cannot get my HP Photosmart scanner to work wireless. I cannot remember when i last read a thread where people had trouble getting their HP printer to work. So good on them for providing the software. When my printer is due for replacement, i definitely will check out their printers first.

[claydoh]

Heck, it wasn't all that far back, if memory serves, that Kubuntu included the hplip gui by default.

Sent from my DNA using Tapatalk, like that really matters

[SteveRiley]

there was an HP logo in the system tray (printer utility, installer, whatever) ... so the last place I want to see that is in a distro which has a GNU base (Debian), I was actually offended and disgusted.

The logo comes from the GUI interface (package hplip-gui on Ubuntu) to the HP Linux Printing and Imaging System (package hplip on Ubuntu). Hewlett-Packard provides resources for the open source community to use their products, which is better than what most other manufacturers do. The maintainers of KWheezy have decided to include this utility, given their stated desire: "To be easier for Linux or Debian newcomers. It is full-featured, with all the applications, plugins, fonts and drivers that you need for daily use, and some more." Can't imagine why you would feel offended and disgusted that someone wants to make Linux easier for people.

[tek_heretik]

@Grey...when I tried Kwheezy, there was an HP logo in the system tray (printer utility, installer, whatever), I don't own anything HP, so why is Kwheezy practising 'desktop presence' for a corporation, that's what you get when you buy a proprietary Windows machine, tons and tons of 'desktop presence' bloatware, it's an effin logo billboard, lol (besides the insane lag from all that extra garbage running in the background), so the last place I want to see that is in a distro which has a GNU base (Debian), I was actually offended and disgusted.

[SteveRiley]

I am running the Liquorice 3.12-3.dmz.1-liquorix-amd64 #1 ZEN SMP PREEMPT kernel

The Liquorix kernels are great. I use them most of the time. Seems that Barrett is sometimes a little behind getting new point releases compiled, and when that happens, I switch to the Ubuntu mainline.

I stripped out pulseaudio so I could use ALSA with KMixer.

PA causing you problems? It's been stable here for quite some time. And I do find the multiple source/sink capability useful.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Kwheezy, it has all good intentions except it's loaded with proprietary corporate-ware, etc, and I find the artwork disturbing, black and pink, blech, that's why I installed a minimal command line Debian, then kde-standard, the rest is history.

It would make a good KDE alternative for noobie-ish people but the first Debian under the hood glitch that rears its ugly head, they'll be lost, I will admit the *buntus created a VERY user friendly set of distros, but not being able to troubleshoot and tinker makes your brain go soft, lol, neurologists say if you keep your brain busy with puzzles and teasers, your mental sharpness and health lasts longer in to old age, I like the challenge.

mmm.... Corporate ware? Which apps are they? FireFox. Kmail. KMyMoney, Stellarium, PosgreSQL 9.1, PGAdmin III, K3B, Network Manager, KMixer, LibreOffice, System Settings, I do have GoogleEarth installed, and it does NOT throw a "illegal http..." box and then crash when I attempt to search for a location. I watch Youtube and I also can watch Amazon Prime Instant videos.

It comes with Steam installed. I installed Jitsi but don't use it. I installed Google Talk and use it often. I have Skype installed but rarely use it, preferring Hangout instead. I use gmail, googletalk, G+ and google (search, trends, scholar), but nothing else.

I am running the Liquorice 3.12-3.dmz.1-liquorix-amd64 #1 ZEN SMP PREEMPT kernel because it WORKS with my AR9462 Wireless Network Adapter, which hasn't worked with Kubuntu since early last summer. So, I have a 300 Mb/s wireless connection instead of the 100 Mb/s eth0 connection. Kernels before 3.11 did not work with my wireless.

It came with Conky pre-configured. All I did was add a line to the conky.conf file which displayed a month calendar with today's date highlighted.

$color ${font nimbus mono L:size=10}${execpi 60 DJS=`date +%-d`; cal -h | sed s/"\(^\|[^0-9]\)$DJS"'\b'/'\1${color blue}'"$DJS"'$color'/}

I stripped out pulseaudio so I could use ALSA with KMixer.

KNemo is pre-installed in the system tray. It has two desktop icons which toggle the screen and toggle the taskbar mode.

All in all, it is completely stable and everything works. 99% of the updates come from the Debian repositories. I installed 1.4 and it updated to 1.5 automatically without any problems. Euan Thomas is doing a good job of building and maintaining it.

I love it. It is a sexy looking and acting version of Debian Wheezy.