There is software that is bad because it has bugs in it and there is software that is bad because it was designed to be bad. In all my years of using a PC, I dont think I have ever seen a piece of software designed to be as bad as the printer driver installers from HP.

I have a MacOS X laptop - the power of UNIX and the interface of Apple. We just got a new HP LaserJet 3050 printer in the office and Im having trouble printing on it. The built in driver on my laptop is for a 3020 and we have a 3050 so I thought perhaps the latest driver might help so I head to the HP website for a driver.

First off, they have different drivers with almost identical names but different dates and sizes. One is 110 MB!! and the other is 90MB!!! Jesus, these are drivers! I picked the most recent one and download it.

I run the AiO Installer specifically for MacOS and things start off normally enough. I agree to the license that no one reads and then suddenly all my desktop windows close!! All of my applications shut down!! I had 10 tabs in my browser and a bunch of files open for work and the HP installer shuts them all down WITHOUT EVEN TELLING ME!! Or WARNING me. Outrageous.

The coup de grace is that once all my apps are gone and the installer finishes, it REBOOTS MY COMPUTER!! This is UNIX people, I reboot about once a month. Even Apple's OS updates dont reboot the computer very often and they clearly warn you about it beforehand. This installer was clearly designed by a PC programmer for the world of unnecessary reboots known as Windows. Wow.

When the computer comes back up, a little Tuxedo application runs called the HP Setup Assistant. this is clearly a PC application because it asks me for the printer address in a PC-format and does not include a browser to let me find the printer. How the @#$% do i know the address? So I gave up. After all that I couldnt get the installer to install and Im still without a printer.

Without a doubt this installer from HP is the WORST SOFTWARE EVER!