[GRLUG] want to buy a B&W printer

[Mike Williams]

If the goal is a low cost per page, then you want a laser. Printing on a 
color inkjet is expensive because it's INK, not because it's color. I 
have never noticed fumes from a laser printer, although they do draw 
quite a bit of electricity and produce some heat.

I have a Brother laser printer also, an HL-5250DN, which is a (now 
discontinued) small SOHO, greyscale, ethernet, double-sided printing 
one. Linux support has been pretty good, although I think its "BRScript" 
postscript emulation is not perfect. This little printer has been an 
absolute workhorse, and it takes a very long time to go through a toner 
cartridge.

I've also had good luck with Canon inkjets for several generations. 
Gutenprint
has no trouble rendering for them, and Canon does not play games with 
the pricing of their ink cartridges. Lexmark and a few others have been 
known to sell their low-end printers at below cost, then make massive 
profits on the cartridges for them. With Canon, if you pay more for the 
printer, you're just getting a better printer. I would highly recommend 
that you find one with separate cartridges for each color (most of them 
are this way now) and a "mega-black" cartridge for the most used color. 
I currently have a Multipass MP-610, which has those features. Ink is 
still expensive, but no worse than it has to be.


On 08/09/2011 10:30 AM, Bob Kline wrote:
> No problems with Brother and Linux?
> Anyone have any problems with other
> brands and Linux?  I'm leery of Canon.
> Good products, but they've been what
> I'll call Linux unfriendly in the past, refusing
> to provide information for drivers.
>
> I guess I would prefer an inkjet unit - fumes
> and all are a minor worry with the laser units -
> but they seem hard to come by.
>
>


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