this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2023
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My old person trait is that when I purchase a printer, I should be able to use whatever is the cheapest compatible ink without the printer treating me like I'm smuggling unicorn blood out of Narnia
I bought a brother laser printer when my company sent us to WFH in March 2020 and I haven't looked back. Just replaced the ink (er, toner) in March 2023
I've heard excellent things about Brother being the least extortionate printer in the market. How well does it work on Linux by the way?
Instantly. Least uncomplicated device on the network. Once I was angry at my laser printer for not showing up, turns out I accidentally left the ethernet cable disconnected afer moving it. Plugged it in, immediately popped up, no wait or restart needed. Prints immediately and effectively, cartridges are easy to replace and relatively cheap, never had stuck paper. Perfect printer.
Do they sell all-in-ones? For legacy reasons, I'll need one with a bundled fax modem and a scanner if possible.
Yep, I have one of those. Model MFC-L2710DW. Been rock solid.
I have a brother inkjet (AIO but I only ever really use the printer now) and a Samsung monochrome laser.
They both work tremendously well with Linux. Honestly printers are easier in Linux now than they are in Windows.
I have android and Chromebook tablets that work fine with it and an Ubuntu laptop that I only printed with a few times but it worked like I would have expected
I’ve bought 2 separate cannon i80s (because I have a ton of leftover ink I got for very cheap) and its the best printer I’ve ever used
You get what you pay for. If you buy a loss-leader they will of course try to get more out of you
I don't know why they are booing you, you're right! If you don't want a printer that's a loss leader with expensive ink then buy a tank printer or a laser printer.
Cartridge based inkjet printers are almost always a loss leader and you also buy the part that does the printing every time you buy a cartridge. The print heads are actually on the cartridge, not in the printer at all.
Tank based inkjet printers are very different - the printer costs more but the ink is cheap. They also have no way of knowing what brand ink you use since it's just ink - not a whole set of print heads and a microchip. This is all because the print heads are part of the printer - not included with the ink in a cartridge.
Laser printers are also great but they get even more complex. They have drum units which can be part of the toner cartridge or a separate unit that needs replacing periodically depending on the design of the printer.
I'm glad Brother laser printers seem to work well with third party toner and any error message is easy to override
It is often reasonable to handwrite everything to avoid printers
I once heard that the Russian security bureau was so paranoid about bugged computers, that they still fill forms with mechanical typewriters just in case.