> Docks are horrifying products. Thunderbolt docks are doubly horrifying.
I believe it. From all my years as a sysadmin, docks were by far the second largest source of headaches (after printers). Super high failure rate, all kinds of quirks, shoddy power delivery. And these weren't some cheap amazon basics dongles, I'm talking the $250+ docks from Dell, Lenovo, etc.
Docks ok. But why printers are such a hot mess? For the past 20 years they could have been just webservers that we send REST requests to.
But no, we had to install random drivers on our machines, get blue screens and have to plug and unplug the printers until they get reset properly.
It's not considered fully RESTful, but it sounds like you are describing IPP, which came out in 1997.
Compatibility marks/certifications like AirPrint (2010) define how to advertise your IPP printer and its features, such as whether you can directly send a PDF. IPP Everywhere is perhaps the most notable open alternative to AirPrint.
> For the past 20 years they could have been just webservers that we send REST requests to.
That exists, it’s called IPP.
Because printers must be as cheap as possible and require a recurring revinue stream, which includes malware. Sorry, "valuable special offers".
It costs more money to make a printer with good firmware, and you're more likely to throw away a buggy printer and buy a new one with new special ink cartridges.
Printers are complex robots, require frequent supply refills, and are high touch interactions with people. (people printing things wrong, people misusing printing resources, managing quotas for same, etc.)
It's not just firmware.