Typically, you aren't trying to print in front of a large audience

Hey that's what we get CUPS auto-discovery for.

Good one!

It is unreal how tech as mature as printers is so fucking unreliable

Arguably it still hasn't matured yet. Or at least it's nowhere near to be a solved problem and we'll probably sidestep it before ever coming up with a real solution.

I'd put it in the same bucket as TODO lists. After centuries we're still not set.

Depends on the printer. I still remember the LaserJet 4000 series with great fondness. They were absolute tanks that almost never broke. You did have to replace wear items like rollers, but that was it.

At least printers give you some sort of error message.

EDID negotiation or signal integrity issues in HDMI, good luck diagnosing actual causes without highly specialized (and expensive...) equipment.

> At least printers give you some sort of error message.

Inscrutable, and infamous, though they may be:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_LOAD_LETTER