I picked up an old HP LaserJet (with the Ethernet option) for free during grad school. It was a great printer --- good CUPS/Linux support, reliable, cheap 3rd party toner.
It's sad how the mighty have fallen. Would never recommend one for someone today.
Their laptops are good. But the company is shitty.
That being said, they're still thriving for a reason. I was trying to convince my cousin to get rid of his HP subscription printer and he won't. He says it is cheap and easy to pay the subscription and his school aged kids can print the colour pictures they want when they remember they had an assignment at midnight. He just gets ink replacement posted to his house before he runs out and he says it works out great for him.
I'm told it is not just for ink convenience. Apparently the printer needs to be connected to the internet and stops working if you stop paying the subscription, which you are locked into.
My mother got an HP 255 G8 laptop on which the webcam just will not work no matter what I do.
It's enabled in the bios and the correct driver is installed but the built-in webcam is not detected.
Also the keyboard got damaged with the space button only responsing to center presses after roughly a year of usage.
I know it's a relatively cheap machine but the driver issue pissed me off
That said, if you pay more up-front for something like a Brother laser printer, it should last you a lot longer and be on the order of 10x cheaper per page. People see Instant Ink as "cheap" because they've probably never tried the much cheaper alternative, and they see it as "convenient" because they've never had a printer that lasts several thousand prints without a cartridge change. It's really sad seeing so many people who can afford the upfront cost of a laser printer falling for this scam so often.