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HP eventually wakes up to Win2K

Oops! Maybe we should write some drivers, guys.

When Windows 2000 was launched back in February, a common complaint was a shortage of drivers, video cards in particular being badly served. The latest - and we're really talking late here - group of users to be hit are those using one of HP's popular OfficeJet printer/fax/scanner devices, who were originally promised that a Win2K driver for the OfficeJet 500, 600, 700 and T series would ship this month. Now the aptly named Customer Self-Service Centre is advising June as the earliest a full set of drivers will be available. In the meantime, a beta print-only driver is available, which, while functional, does not offer any of the friendly menu driven controls for such vital tasks as aligning and cleaning print cartridges or receiving faxes into the PC. And that user-friendliness must surely be one of the key reasons home and small office users bought the thing in the first place. Was HP unaware that a major new operating system was about to be launched? When did the company start working on the new drivers? How long should it take to write and test them? What planet was HP on for the last two years so that it didn't see any of the hype surrounding Win2Ks imminent arrival? "We are making every effort to expedite the release of the OfficeJet Windows 2000 software," bleats the HP website. Of course you are, chaps. But OfficeJet users should at least be grateful - if Win2K had shipped on time, they'd have had to wait 18 months for drivers, rather than a mere six. ® Related story HP punters shout online over missing W2K driver

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