ARM-compatible drivers for Canon vs. other brands

[normadel]

With all the people saying they will not buy a Canon printer ever again because of there not being ARM-compatible drivers, I have to ask.......

Is Canon any worse than HP, Epson, Brother and any others at creating ARM drivers? It seems before you leap elsewhere, you should  look to see what other printer manufacturers are doing, at least checking specs on a printer you are considering.

And....what is the duty of a printer manufacturer to support older models with ARM drivers? There's gotta be a limit.

Just sayin'.

[brianbrown]

Yes, Canon is way worse at creating ARM drivers.  The vast majority of their printer lines don't even have ANY drivers.  I'm not asking them to support a 10-year old printer, but how about any ImageClass printer that I can go buy on Amazon today.  NONE of them have ARM drivers.  The printer sitting next to me that's not even a year old and is still avialable for purchase, doesn't have ARM drivers.

I'm a longtime Canon fan.  I've recommended Canon to customers for more than a decade.  I can't recommend Canon anymore.  HP is now our recommendation.

I sell a lot of Surface Laptops.  The ARM laptops are the only thing my customers want.  We've sold a few thousand of them.  I don't buy any Intel laptops anymore unless the customer specifically asks for it, which is seldom.  For the last 2000 laptops sold, maybe 1 was Intel. 

The ONLY issue we have with the ARM laptops is Canon Printers.  If someone has a Canon printer, we recommend they get an Intel-based laptop instead.  We also tell them that the ARM laptops are the first laptops we've seen in a long time that are NOTICEABLY faster than Intel laptops and have substantially better battery life.  All-day usage is a reality.  If those things are important to them, then throw the Canon printer in a dumpster and buy an HP, which is REALLY unfortunate when 99% of the time they have a Canon sitting there because of our recommendation.

I'm really disappointed in Canon.  I can't speak to all other manufacturers, but HP is doing a heck of a lot better job at supporting recent and current model printers than Canon is by a HUGE margin.