Time for 2025 printer research!
Have been stalling getting a new printer since this HP has been doing me fine since way back. But of course we need to prepare for the inevitable firmware updates and subscription raises that will lock us in.
What I’ve heard is best:
- Laser Printers
- Brother branded
Recently though, Brother started doing the funky like all other printer companies. This stopped me last time when I was about to buy one.
I won’t get into the details as to where I’ve found and read this information because it’s in the back of my mind.
And since I’m really just here to ask: WHAT KIND OF PRINTER YOU GOT, LINUX USERS?
Preferably under $200.
EDIT: Scanning + Printer + Copier combo is the ultimate goal, but whatever else works too. Preferably wifi connected. But I can make some Ethernet cables.
You must log in or register to comment.
Brother HL-2270DW, $60 on craigslist, still lots of them out there.
+1 for used Brother models. Mine is a MFC 27XX YY, which has decent Linux support and accepts third-party toner without complaints.
I have a very similar Brother - HL-L2370DW. Just works with any Linux distro I’ve tried out of the box. Has wifi, USB, and ethernet, black and white laser, duplex printing. No copier functionality. Third party toner cartridges are readily available.
deleted by creator
I’ve run my business for over 25 years, and I haven’t had a printer in over two decades. I have needed to print something less than half a dozen times since making the decision to not replace it. Instead I print to PDF and if I need actual physical paper, I’ve put a PDF on a USB flash drive and taken it to my local office supplies store to print on demand.
I have a scanner, it’s been used perhaps a dozen times in the same period.
In other words, have you considered not buying a printer?
Another potential route: your public library. Mine prints for 5¢ per page and has a web interface for uploading documents from anywhere and printing them when you go in.
Along this vein, a used e-reader with a large screen has cut down my printing needs by about half. Don’t have to burn out my retinas on a backlit screen, but don’t need to print out and carry stacks of paper either.
Removed by mod
Except that in civil discussion with experts, other ideas are what helps people arrive at a solution suitable for them and their situation.
I’ll also add that I’ve been a Linux user for 25 years and the toxicity you claim in relation to the Linux community is in my experience not evident as a “major reason”, instead I’ve found it to be innovative and flexible with a wide perspective and approach to problem solving.
Are there dickheads in the Linux community? Yes, just like there are everywhere in society.
Anything but inkjets, unless you are keen on printing photos. The amount of time I’ve saved on maintenance since I switched to a laser printer is astounding. Currently using an old Brother MFP I bought for $30 at the local thrift store, then $30 for a two-pack of third-party toner on eBay.
As for wireless printing, I set up an old thin client as a discrete print server.
+1 for thrifted laser. Just look for replacement toner before checking out.
Brother, brother.
I use Brother HLL2350DW Monochrome Compact Laser Printer with Wireless and Duplex Printing. I was pretty nervous about getting a monochrome printer because I thought “what if I need color!”, but I haven’t needed color once.
I’m on Arch btw (aspiring Guix user) and I have to use this printer driver to get the printer working: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/brother-hll2350dw
It can connect to wifi and supposedly supports driverless printing… but I haven’t been able to get that to work. (I haven’t dug too deeply.)
I don’t mind installing the driver and connecting my laptop to the printer with a USB cable. The rest of the printing experience is great! I bought this thing over 2 years ago and it’s still works like new. Zero maintenance, zero toner “ink” replacements, the printed pages are crisp.
I recently bought my parents HLL3280CDW Color Printer with Laser Quality Output, Duplex and Mobile Printing & Ethernet. Everyone says laser printers suck at printing in color, so I wanted to try one out… and people online are way overexaggerating how bad the color printing quality is. It’s actually pretty damn good. I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between an inkjet and laser color printer. Maybe if they were right next to each other and I was looking for differences, but for most people and most use cases, I don’t think anyone will notice. (Unless you need to print photos? idk.)
I’d say the biggest drawback these Brother laser printers have might be the size. My monochrome printer is not the smallest. And the color scanner/printer/copier printer I got my parents is pretty big. Ink cartridges are tiny compared to the huge toner rolls these printers use. I think the size bothers my parents a little, but I keep telling them to remember the shitty ink cartridges drying out all the time and needing constant maintenance.
I’ve had Brother laser printers for over 15 years with my Linux machines and they’ve worked beautifully.
Still Brother. Yes they have a subscription option, but only on certain models. Just read the product page to verify.
Usually, retailers carry both, so if you find two almost identical ones, only slight price and model number differences, then you should easily be able to pick the non-subscription one.
I have an Epson EcoTank ET-4850 and it works really well. And even though that’s not under $200, cheaper ink might make up for it.
Regardless of the model, what you want is a printer that supports CUPS driverless LAN/WiFi printing and the Apple AirScan protocol for scanning (which the model above supports both). If configured right, CUPS will just detect your printer and it will just work, no installing drivers, no choosing models etc., same with SANE for your scanner, without defining backends.
USB-devices are always a gamble where even minor model-number differences might entirely break support. Better make sure to check on the compatibility list and scour the mailing lists and forums for some crumb of information that your specific and exact printer model is supported and someone verifies it’s working. Ideally test before buying, or not rely on USB.
Yup, another vote for brother laser printers. If you’re worried about them applying updates that add DRM to toner cartridges, but you still want network printing you can do one of two things:
- Give the printer a static IPv4 address and block egress from your router with a firewall.
- Give it a static IPv4 address but give it a non-functional gateway (e.g. if your gateway is 10.0.0.1, make the printer’s gateway 10.0.0.254)
Heck, do both if you’re paranoid.
Either way it’s not getting updates unless you manually change things or download the firmware updates on your Linux box and apply it that way.
I have an Epson EcoTank, and I LOVE IT! The ink bottles are super cheap. I’ve printed a few thousand pages and I’m still on the first bottle.
The printers themselves are quite expensive. I think the lowest price one is around $200. But, they make up for it with how cheap the ink is and how long you can go without needing to buy more ink.
Everything works on Linux. Printing, scanning, all of the different feed options, all the driver options.
Inkjet isn’t appropriate for somebody who prints infrequently, especially refillable inkjets, because they dry out even faster than cartridges. Toner is powder and stays good for basically as long as the printer is functional.
It might depend on climate, because I live somewhere semi-arid, but it’s worth keeping in mind.
I live in a desert, and have had my printer for about four years on the same ink. I haven’t had any issues other than needing to do a few head cleaning cycles now and then.
Quite lucky, I’d say. Could also come down to some print heads being designed better than others. I rigged my old inkjet up to a refilling tank system and I’d have to run a few cleaning cycles in a row if I didn’t print for a couple of weeks. This was in a room with around 50 to 70% humidity.
I got the Epson ET-2815 (non-cartridge, tank-based inkjet). Works pretty well with Linux (they have drivers available, but not officially supported). Had to set it up on WiFi via app (which was an annoying process) first though, but I could have just wired it up and then I wouldn’t need that. Maybe it is possible to somehow set it up on WiFi some other way after you have connected directly?
Got tripped up once because I could not connect to it via the utility software (while printing still worked). Turned iut that was due to me being connected to VPN, and for some reason the request went through that (which I think is a little suspect…), so it couldn’t find it. So I have to disconnect VPN to do that. You will not have access to this heavy self-cleaning program on Linux, but you should probably avoid it anyway because it wastes a lot of ink and deposits in this sponge you then would need to buy and replace every now and then.
Biggest issue I had was that it stopped printing some.colors after a while. Had to do a manual cleaning by opening it, removing these dummy cartridges and connecting rubber tubings to the nozzles and pump isopropyl alcohol through. Was a lot of research and took some time to get working again. Think maybe my humidifier was the issue, as it tends to deposit some white powder around my home that I think caused a clog. We’ll see this winter as I fire it up again.
EDIT: Printed a fair amount and the tanks lasts a long time. If you go inkjet, then this is the economical choice. More expensive upfront, but much cheaper in operations. But you still have the drying issue wich could cause you to have to do what I described above. Or print regularly at least. If you don’t need color, laser is probably your best bet.
Brother HL 2030, and the scanner is a Mustek 1248UB, both chosen for their Linux compatibility at the time. And most likely both discontinued.
Any printer that supports Mopria or AirPrint will work on Linux without installing any drivers.
I prefer using older Brother laser printers that don’t have any chips in the toner cartridges. I have an HL-4150CDN and a DCP-7065DN.
I thought Brother would be better than HP. It wasn’t. I’ve had a lot of success for years with a Canon laser printer/scanner hooked up wired to my router. When I switched to Linux, it was simply detected and works with a lot of programs without even trying to install a Canon driver.
Yeah, I think laser with viable third party cartridges is the actual answer. No matter what brand. Individual model is more important than the brand too, because my Brother was actually still kinda annoying to get working properly.
I got the Epson L8180 (the same model has another name in the US), since I’m an artist and want larger prints. It even prints from the rear, since I do my sketches on an ipad, and then I print my sketches on thick, 300 gsm watercolor paper. It does scanning and printing and copying, and all works on Linux. Gimp supports its advanced printing dialog with the appimage, but not flatpak version (the problem is with the flatpak architecture, not gimp or the driver). Conversely, the xsane app supports the scanner fine, but xsane is itself not very stable. I use the epsonscan2 flatpak version (which works better than the .deb file under ubuntu-based distros). Overall, very happy with printing with gimp3 with more advanced options.
