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.
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.
Does AirScan on Linux work to scan-tohcomputer from the device? Or do you have to run [x]sane or some other interactive app on your computer? I’m wanting to use my R Pi as a headless server/backend that a scammer sends to, without having to use any desktop software interactively.
It works via SANE and so should work with all the standard scanning apps in Linux. Personally I prefer GUI apps because they give me lots of additional control (I use KDE’s Skanlite).
However SANE itself ships a command line tool, but that needs to be triggered on the device that uses the scanner. However, I noticed that when the GUI app is active, I can start the scan with the button on the scanner, so there might be something that can be worked out to always have the scanner connected and pressing the button scans into a network share (or something like that), but that’s outside my experience. If it works with any other SANE scanner, it should work with AirScan.
ok, thanks.
Brother HL 2030, and the scanner is a Mustek 1248UB, both chosen for their Linux compatibility at the time. And most likely both discontinued.
My solution is perhaps more convoluted than most. But I got tired of trying to cherry pick the best printer from the limited selection and built a Windows 11 VM in Virt-Manager and passed through the USB port my printer is plugged into. Now I can buy whatever printer I want/need without worry of compatibility.
As other’s have said Brother. I can honestly say they are one of the few companies which still make Linux drivers for their printers. I’ve been using their monochrome lasers.
They are workhorses as well, I’ve seen several out in the field printing well over 100K pages and still going strong. The best part about Brother I think is they also allow free access to their service manuals which will tell you more than you may ever want to know about your Brother Printer. :) I had an older HL-L2240 (USB Only) I bought about 9 years ago in a thrift shop and it ran faithfully on a network print server at my home until it stopped feeding paper. It probably needed a new pick up roller set, but it was a bit slow and I felt it was time to upgrade, so I now have a Hl_L2420_DW wireless which out of the box on my Fedora linux system installed and runs flawlessly. They are generally under $200 (around $130 at Wal-Mart for example).
They also do not limit you on your laser cartridge if you go that route, in that you can usually buy after market toner and drums without it ever complaining or locking you out.
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.
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’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.
good for you, mine charges 20¢ a page
Good God… I don’t even think there’s a place in my entire town that charges that much. :(
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.
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.
100% Brother, but shop from their Refurbished Store and save a ton of money. Comes with the same warranty as if it were new, and everything ships with toner included.
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.
Honestly, I’ve had HP for most of my life, and they have always worked until I couldn’t find cartridges for them or broke them while moving, or something similar. Latest time I needed one I decided that I print stuff so sporadically that a laser printer would be a better investment (previously, almost every time I tried to print stuff the ink was dried, because I hadn’t used it in months). I’ve had this HP for about a year and haven’t had any issues at all. But like I said I don’t print that much, but whenever I needed it it’s been there. And to me reliability is the best quality on a piece of equipment that doesn’t get much use but when it does sometimes is critical.
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 bought a WiFi Brother printer 3 years ago and had a terrible time with Fedora Linux after Google discontinued Google Print services. I eventually gave up and would ask my partner to print from her Windows machine.
We now have a WiFi Canon laser printer and I’m printing from phone, Fedora, and USB memory stick with no issues. Never even installed drivers for anything.
I don’t have a specific model, but in general I’ve had success with Epson Tank printers and Linux. It opens up the ability to use third party ink easily. I’ll use the Epson Connect feature for scanning (to email in my instance, but there’s other options) without needing to input a server address or install anything on the OS. The main caveat, like most ink printers, they work best if you print often. This is to cut down on dry out and manual print head cleaning. In my experience using them weekly is enough.
