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FWIW I was totally set on picking up a Brother B&W Laser a few months ago to replace my crappy inkjet because I've had great experiences with them in the past.

FWIW I was totally set on picking up a Brother B&W Laser a few months ago to replace my crappy inkjet because I've had great experiences with them in the past. I wanted it now though, and locally could only really find a good deal on a Canon. I'm extremely happy with it, prints great, fast enough for me, can get knockoff toner for cheap on Amazon that hasn't given me any issues, and the wifi networking is rock solid. Duplex printing, flatbed scanner, the works etc for $100. It also has a pretty thorough administration panel built in, though as a home user I only clicked around it for fun. So now both Canon & Brother are on my recommendations list when anyone asks me what printer to buy.

greentissue 5y ago
Brother makes good hardware but bad software. They recently gave up support on newer versions MacOS. They have an android printing driving with 100+ reviews @ 1.X out of 5 stars. It not longer works on newer android phones. I've tried for years to get my networked brother multifunction laster printer working with my chromebook to no avail. If it somewhat works its printing things slightly incorrectly, running out of memory, etc...
- lallysingh 5y ago
  I just got my 3rd Brother Laser (color with scanner). Everything (iPad, Mac, iPhone, Linux, android) prints perfectly with it.
Lio 5y ago
The wonderful thing about a Brother laser printer is that you don’t need to be need to install drivers; CUPS will cover you. I’m used mine with macOS, iOS, Linux and Windows. So no multi-gigabyte downloads, no proprietary cloud photo storage and no telemetry. I’ve had that in the past with both Epson and Canon inkjets. Is the Canon laser any better? I’m so sold on Brother now I don’t think I’d trust Canon again.
- somehnguy 5y ago
  I haven’t installed drivers or software for any printer (inkjet or laser) I’ve used in the past like 10-12 years. They just work across all my devices automatically (windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, android). So no idea how Canon’s software is. The days of needing drivers & manufacturer specific software are long gone at this point unless you have a very weird or specific setup. Heck, I can even scan without any special software. They all still prompt you to install their junk in the manuals, but you don’t need to.

greentissue 5y ago

Brother makes good hardware but bad software. They recently gave up support on newer versions MacOS. They have an android printing driving with 100+ reviews @ 1.X out of 5 stars. It not longer works on newer android phones. I've tried for years to get my networked brother multifunction laster printer working with my chromebook to no avail. If it somewhat works its printing things slightly incorrectly, running out of memory, etc...

lallysingh 5y ago
I just got my 3rd Brother Laser (color with scanner). Everything (iPad, Mac, iPhone, Linux, android) prints perfectly with it.

Lio 5y ago

The wonderful thing about a Brother laser printer is that you don’t need to be need to install drivers; CUPS will cover you. I’m used mine with macOS, iOS, Linux and Windows. So no multi-gigabyte downloads, no proprietary cloud photo storage and no telemetry. I’ve had that in the past with both Epson and Canon inkjets. Is the Canon laser any better? I’m so sold on Brother now I don’t think I’d trust Canon again.

somehnguy 5y ago
I haven’t installed drivers or software for any printer (inkjet or laser) I’ve used in the past like 10-12 years. They just work across all my devices automatically (windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, android). So no idea how Canon’s software is. The days of needing drivers & manufacturer specific software are long gone at this point unless you have a very weird or specific setup. Heck, I can even scan without any special software. They all still prompt you to install their junk in the manuals, but you don’t need to.