I do own a HP printer but I agree with you. It does not need to be as part of the install, although I think the idea is to give the end user the option to easily install his printer. Anyway, I am also for puting it in extra/

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Can't say I've ever seen HPLIP started by default, that is, if you don't start it, it won't be in your system tray. If it is, go into your system settings and remove it from "auto start" (or whatever it is called).

Did you use usually the root login or an unprivileged user account?

Looks like the HPLIP service refuses to run as root, BUT it is started by /etc/xdg/autostart/hplip-systray.desktop for every unprivileged user account, no matter if a HP printer is present or not.

So, what happened with "Slackware does not make any assumptions" about how the users uses it?

Because looks like that Slackware assumes that every Slacker in the World owns a HP printer.

In fact, this is just one of assumptions made by our beloved Slackware.

The much greater nuisance is that Slackware apparently assumes that every one of us owns a NVidia graphics card and uses The Blob for it.

Then we are cursed with those LTS kernels, when every user of open-source drivers, be it Intel, AMD or even NVidia with Nouveau, needs the latest kernel for a better performance and stability.

Honestly, I believe that the LTS kernels place is also in /extra if there's a must have kernel for The Blob fans, while the main tree should ship always the latest kernel, which is generally useful - for every one else than The BLob fans.

PS. Of course I talk about the slackware-current, I do not comment about the usefulness of LTS kernels in the stable releases. BUT, we live with -current since more than four years, I do no even remember which software is into Slackware 14.2

an alternative (the one I use here) is to put this line in /etc/rc.d/rc.local (so you don't forget to remove it again after an update)
actually my line here is a bit different (maybe because everyone has different needs)

Actually, this is just a hack altering an useless software for those many who do not own a HP printer.

IMHO this is a bit of hair splitting. hplip is a hardware support package, just like gutenprint, pcmciautils, the myriad of xorg drivers, and so forth. By this logic we should put any such package that isn't used by all users into extra?

If your next argument is "But it autostarts!", then, well, disable it. You're a slackware admin, you know how.

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For info, i have build the latest version, hplip (3.20.9),
this release need 'avahi', doesn't compil here, without it.

Yes, the main argument is that it autostarts.

How about Slackware to ship its autostart file as sample, at least?

I.e.

/etc/xdg/autostart/hplip-systray.desktop-sample

Anyways, my favorite way to "disable it" is with removepkg - I hate too that big blue icon which is useless for me, as I have no HP printer.

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Then, let's nuke HPLIP from orbit or add also AVAHI!

present or not, I can construct both, no problem.

With all respect, I am a Slackware user, not a Slackware admin. And I do not intend ever to become a Slackware system administrator.

Facts are that you Slackware ask us the users to install everything and one of those applications autostarts even there is no need for it. And usually there is no need for it.

We know well how to disable it by removing the whole package or parts of it, but this does not change the fact that's it is useless for many of us and, again: it autostarts.

Why not start also Apache by default, with the excuse that we will known well how to disable it?

A lot of things are not used by all, should they be removed ?

One big difference between Slackware and other distributions, is the lack of hand-holding.

This is the distribution with a package manager that doesn't do dependency checking; the distribution that has an installer that just drops you at a command prompt; the distribution that defaults to booting up in console mode; etc. etc.

If you want to use Slackware, you'll have to invest some time getting to know the inner workings of the system. You'll have to become the sysadmin of your own system, at least to a certain degree.

Having said all that, I'll just add that yes, I agree there's really no reason to have HPLIP start by default. Those who own a HP printer can surely figure out how to enable it. And surely, that'll be a minor annoyance compared to the experience of owning a modern HP printer.

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I have no issue with them if they stay dead on my hard drive, and I am proud of respecting the The Recommended Full Installation, even in a SD-card which I currently use to host my operating system.

BUT, this HPLIP insists to run, uselessly consuming system memory and CPU cycles, and let's do not explain in detail my opinion about the big blue thing from system tray...

That's exactly WHY the Slackware shouldn't insists to run HPLIP for me, even when I do not need it.