Another HP product added to my "do not buy" list: LaserJet P2035n

I tweeted about the HP LaserJet P2035n a while back, and things have only gotten worse for me since.  To summarise: it has no SSL support for administration, its SNMP response is patchy (see graph below), and it isn't supported by JetAdmin.  This last point was underscored to me yesterday: i realised that the particular printer i've been monitoring is running an older firmware version (from 2008), so i went looking for an updated one.  I found it on HP's web site (eventually - that remains a rant for another day), downloaded it to my JetAdmin VM, and promptly found that it insists on being locally connected via USB.

Fails like this are unfortunately becoming increasingly common with HP's product range as they try to compete on price with everyone and get products to market quickly.  (See my rant about the ProCurve 1810 switch.)  My open letter to HP follows:

Dear HP,

Please stop trying to compete with Dell on price.  Purchase price is not absolutely everything, nor is time to market.  Concentrate on making yourselves useful and manageable in the medium-large enterprise, and we'll keep buying your products.

Yours sincerely,
A (mostly) happy, long-term ProCurve and LaserJet customer.

Graph from my SNMP monitoring package showing this printer going up & down like a yo-yo (click for full size version):image0