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 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.
Not $200 but ended up buying a xerox phaser. When looking at cost per page it is one of the cheapest though.
Maybe I’m weird but I don’t like getting a scanner combo. Scanners break more easily than printers and after my Brother all-in-one had a busted scanner I’ve been going for portable scanners that run off USB power from the laptop. Canon lide has been a solid scanner for me.
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.
If you don’t mind used, I had great luck with my Samsung L2020w, cat got some celophane stuck in it and it died (for good)
Replaced it with a Brother HL-series because they’re what I used at work.
The lil guys are beasts.
I’d normally not wanna go with the “big corpo option” but for a printer without HP shenanigans its really great.
If you set up with the apps it will try to get you to subscribe to an ink subscription, this is not required.
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.
Brother HL-2270DW, $60 on craigslist, still lots of them out there.
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.
+1 for used Brother models. Mine is a MFC 27XX YY, which has decent Linux support and accepts third-party toner without complaints.
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.
Brother HL 2030, and the scanner is a Mustek 1248UB, both chosen for their Linux compatibility at the time. And most likely both discontinued.
Mustek 1248UB
I remember buying one of those from ‘Electronics Boutique’ over 20 years ago. Before they nuked all the extra PC peripherals and renamed it ‘EB Games’
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 (also driverless) 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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
BTW the Brother scare about them adding DRM that was in the news a while back turned out to be false, it was just a random guy on Reddit with a bad third-party cartridge, and Brother replied that they do not block third-party cartridges.
That said, I’m not a huge fan of their weird PPD installer on Linux that installs some random, undocumented crap
