this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2023
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FWIW, my personal anecdotes regarding major brands over the past ~25 years has been:
HP makes crap consumer printers, really insults you with what they charge for a miniscule amount of ink, and behaves generally like a scumbag. Never tried using one with Linux, but I hear they are OK for it.
Canon makes pretty good consumer printers, really insults you with what they charge for a miniscule amount of ink, and behaves generally like a scumbag as far as continuous warnings and other inconveniences when you try third party cartridges. Had hit and miss Linux support. Eventually dumped them ~5 years ago.
Brother makes decent consumer printers, is much more reasonable about ink value and longevity, and is generally pretty good to its customers. My one recent generation Brother sample is one of their "inkvestment" models, and it has absolutely lived up to the hype as far as the ink lasting a long time. Linux support for it has been braindead - very close to zero setup, until just recently for me, but I think I've done something wrong with my recent build because older systems I still have running are still troublefree. So I blame my current issues on me, not on it.
I have a brother laser that I bought about 4 years ago and the thing is a workhorse. Linux setup via CUPS (I think) was pretty simple on Arch.
I literally had to do nothing to two or three different Manjaro builds - showed up as the correct model network printer, "driverless CUPS" listed for driver info.
Did two other recent builds (different hardware, but I'm surprised that would matter here) and it sees the printer, and will let me add it, but always gives me "Unable to locate printer" if I try to print to it. On one system I even installed the relevant drivers from the AUR (which I did not have to do on the others) and still no luck.
It's mostly just an annoyance, so it's been low on my list to fix. I for sure do not blame the printer though.
I can't speak about Linux support, but I bought a used Brother monochrome laser printer on Craigslist for $60 and expect it and the toner cartridge to last approximately until the heat death of the universe. Unlike inkjet, laser printers can sit for a very long time without being used.
Canon is probably working on finding a way for tuner to dry out.
Why not a laser? Brother makes really good laser printers and they'll last forever.
For the duration of my early adulthood laser printers were way too expensive for home use (IMO). Not so much these days but not looking at laser printers is a habit by this point. I'm not anti-laser-printer, more just they never hit my radar.
What are your feelings on Xerox?
Fond memories of when they were very upset that they'd become a household name when it's what everyone called making copies.
Xerox being a household name is probably a fond memory for Xerox these days too.
Also sympathy for how they were robbed by Jobs and Gates.
Seriously I have no idea what their products are like these days I was probably in high school the last time I used one. 😁