6 ms·

I don't think shipping a binary CUPS filter you're just supposed to trust counts as good Linux support. Never buying a printer without a fully working PPD witho

I don't think shipping a binary CUPS filter you're just supposed to trust counts as good Linux support. Never buying a printer without a fully working PPD without blob dependencies.

mshook 5y ago
So what kind of printer do you buy then?
- syshum 5y ago
  I have been printer free / paperless for over a decade now. I am not sure why printers are even needed anymore
  - wyclif 5y ago
    What if you need to print pamphlets, booklets, or place cards? What about your academic thesis?
    - syshum 5y ago
      I do not have a need for any of those things....
      - dylan604 5y ago
        So what's the point of your commentary in this entire thread at all then? You're lack of need for printing serves no one except yourself in this thread about people and their printing needs/issues.
        syshum 5y ago
        Because in every case where a person says they "need" to print one can fine a more economical, more environmental, and easier solution to printing. None of the examples highlighted in the comment I responded to should be required for ANYONE to print, not just me. Electronic versions of each of them are better, more effective, cheaper, and have less environmental impact
        dylan604 5y ago
        That's just not true. You can have your opinion, but you are not in a place to dictate what is best for anyone except yourself. There are many reasons people prefer not reading electronic items. One example is all of the missing animal posters people hand out and distribute. Also, QR codes providing quick access to some electronic info is nice, but you still have to print them. Also, random QR codes placed somewhere are not going to get scanned. You must also print other things along side them to give enough info on why someone should scan the code. I feel like I'm just feeding a troll at this point
        syshum 5y ago
        I scan electronic QR Codes all the time. For displays and Such eINK has come a long way. I remember not too long ago gas stations used printed cards to show the price of gas, now they use electronic signs... I see digital signage systems that have QR Codes displays for customers to customers to scan all the time. Menu Boards at fast food places have largely been replaced with Digital signs. I really can not think of a single thing in the world that is not better in electronic form... > you are not in a place to dictate what is best for anyone except yourself. Make up your mind, when I speak of what impacts me then I am selfish and not considerate of others, when I speak for others I am talking out of turn... You can not have it both ways
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
    - Karellen 5y ago
      Local library / commercial print shop. If your yearly volume is low enough (and specialised enough), you can come out ahead even if the price per page is relatively high.
    - throwaway2331 5y ago
      Go to a print shop/Staples. Whatever you're printing will look 100% better/more professional if you get someone else to print it using commercial tools. Printers are cool if you need to quickly print some black-and-white papers in a jiffy. But anything more than that (and even that) is never going to compare to getting it properly printed. It's like filming video with your phone: it will always pale in comparison to an actual, video-oriented camera.
      - wyclif 5y ago
        What if I don't want to go out, or what if I don't care about quality and what I need isn't about quality anyway...just wanting to print an essay on paper that I can use for pen edits?
        throwaway2331 5y ago
        Then buy a printer, man. I said it right there: > Printers are cool if you need to quickly print some black-and-white papers in a jiffy.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- fuzzfactor 5y ago
  One of the posters wondered why disruptive billions aren't being made by new printer companies. Well not that long ago look what happened with disruptive scooter and ebike rental. Those things piled up faster than landfills could handle it. With printers billions were already made in the 20th century. There are so many thousands of tonnes of surplus printers at any one time, a huge percentage of which have not yet been landfilled, that all I use are rescued printers and I'm in a business where the only deliverable product is paperwork. Even though I am the pioneer of the paperless approach. Anyway, recently things like the discontinued Brother HL-2270 series are more common as discards but have plenty of life left in the hardware. When I got one complete with a couple new toner refills, it was a good time to add it to one of my paperless subnets. Printing which had been non-essential could then become discretionary and the actual cost per page would start at zero and stay that way for the remainder of the toner it had plus the two new cartridges. Well actually only zero compared to other printers considering the cost of the paper is the same. I like this printer better than the equivalent HP's and Lexmark I have kept running in those offices still largely doing full paperwork output for each job. When Windows 11 was released the Brother website posted a message having a positive outlook for compatible drivers to become available for download within a few weeks. That did come true and it turned out better than anticipated since it was still just the same drivers that had been validated for Windows 10. That's the kind of engineering I like. Now they have a detailed list of all their printers supported for Windows 11 with a highly respectable array of discontinued models going back many years. With the printer connected to a regular Windows network, wireless or not, you can fire up a Linux workstation and the printer is easily detected, although you may need to select something like USA Letter Size paper if the default is European A4. Once again I don't recommend actually purchasing a printer when there are so many homeless needing adoption.
b112 5y ago
Thanks for mentioning this. Is there no OSS PPD?
- phoronixrly 5y ago
  My experience with Brother printers has always included having to download a package containing a PPD + binary blob from their support site after someone blindly bought one because they are cheap/someone suggested them. Always check before buying if you stand by good OSS support.
  - b112 5y ago
    Always check before buying if you stand by good OSS support. I typically always do. I have a 20 year old HP colour laser, but it is showing its age. All the praise for Brother printers on HN, somehow short circuited, bypassed my check-it filter. Thanks for kicking it back in gear.
  - netizen-936824 5y ago
    Which companies have good oss support in terms of printers?
    - JoshTriplett 5y ago
      HP ships Open Source support for just about every printer they provide. (You have to bypass the pile of steps in the on-printer portion of setup that desperately want to push you into an ink subscription, though.)
- xioxox 5y ago
  I would check the model. An MFC-L2750DW printed for me from Ubuntu without installing anything.
- kalleboo 5y ago
  To get a Brother laser working on FreeBSD CUPS I used a community PPD from openprinting.org. Black and white only though (which is fine for our needs)
calcifer 5y ago
You seem to be conflating Linux support with FOSS support. They have nothing to do with each other.
- phoronixrly 5y ago
  Even if I was, don't you think that good Linux support would require the drivers running on architectures different from x86? For example you can't use this printer on a Raspberry Pi: https://support.brother.com/g/b/downloadtop.aspx?c=us_ot&lang=en&prod=dcp395cn_all https://support.brother.com/g/b/downloadtop.aspx?c=us_ot&lan... You get a choice of a deb or an rpm packaging the following blob: > brcupsconfpt1: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib/ld-linux.so.2, for GNU/Linux 2.2.5, stripped
  - ekianjo 5y ago
    > For example you can't use this printer on a Raspberry Pi very uncommon use case...
    - joepie91_ 5y ago
      Not really. RPi printing server setups are somewhat common.
  - gunapologist99 5y ago
    You can normally use a generic PCL or PS driver (or another brother cups driver), if it's a Brother laser printer. If it's an inkjet, YMMV.
  - tadfisher 5y ago
    Brother MFCs support IPP Everywhere (aka AirPrint), so you shouldn't need drivers in the first place. If the UI doesn't let you use the IPP Everywhere driver, you can add it with lpadmin -p myprinter -E -v "ipp://<address>/ipp/port1" -m everywhere The printer's web interface should give you the exact IPP/AirPrint URL to use.

I don't think shipping a binary CUPS filter you're just supposed to trust counts as good Linux support. Never buying a printer without a fully working PPD without blob dependencies.

mshook 5y ago

So what kind of printer do you buy then?

syshum 5y ago
I have been printer free / paperless for over a decade now. I am not sure why printers are even needed anymore
- wyclif 5y ago
  What if you need to print pamphlets, booklets, or place cards? What about your academic thesis?
  - syshum 5y ago
    I do not have a need for any of those things....
    - dylan604 5y ago
      So what's the point of your commentary in this entire thread at all then? You're lack of need for printing serves no one except yourself in this thread about people and their printing needs/issues.
      - syshum 5y ago
        Because in every case where a person says they "need" to print one can fine a more economical, more environmental, and easier solution to printing. None of the examples highlighted in the comment I responded to should be required for ANYONE to print, not just me. Electronic versions of each of them are better, more effective, cheaper, and have less environmental impact
        dylan604 5y ago
        That's just not true. You can have your opinion, but you are not in a place to dictate what is best for anyone except yourself. There are many reasons people prefer not reading electronic items. One example is all of the missing animal posters people hand out and distribute. Also, QR codes providing quick access to some electronic info is nice, but you still have to print them. Also, random QR codes placed somewhere are not going to get scanned. You must also print other things along side them to give enough info on why someone should scan the code. I feel like I'm just feeding a troll at this point
        syshum 5y ago
        I scan electronic QR Codes all the time. For displays and Such eINK has come a long way. I remember not too long ago gas stations used printed cards to show the price of gas, now they use electronic signs... I see digital signage systems that have QR Codes displays for customers to customers to scan all the time. Menu Boards at fast food places have largely been replaced with Digital signs. I really can not think of a single thing in the world that is not better in electronic form... > you are not in a place to dictate what is best for anyone except yourself. Make up your mind, when I speak of what impacts me then I am selfish and not considerate of others, when I speak for others I am talking out of turn... You can not have it both ways
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
  - Karellen 5y ago
    Local library / commercial print shop. If your yearly volume is low enough (and specialised enough), you can come out ahead even if the price per page is relatively high.
  - throwaway2331 5y ago
    Go to a print shop/Staples. Whatever you're printing will look 100% better/more professional if you get someone else to print it using commercial tools. Printers are cool if you need to quickly print some black-and-white papers in a jiffy. But anything more than that (and even that) is never going to compare to getting it properly printed. It's like filming video with your phone: it will always pale in comparison to an actual, video-oriented camera.
    - wyclif 5y ago
      What if I don't want to go out, or what if I don't care about quality and what I need isn't about quality anyway...just wanting to print an essay on paper that I can use for pen edits?
      - throwaway2331 5y ago
        Then buy a printer, man. I said it right there: > Printers are cool if you need to quickly print some black-and-white papers in a jiffy.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
fuzzfactor 5y ago
One of the posters wondered why disruptive billions aren't being made by new printer companies. Well not that long ago look what happened with disruptive scooter and ebike rental. Those things piled up faster than landfills could handle it. With printers billions were already made in the 20th century. There are so many thousands of tonnes of surplus printers at any one time, a huge percentage of which have not yet been landfilled, that all I use are rescued printers and I'm in a business where the only deliverable product is paperwork. Even though I am the pioneer of the paperless approach. Anyway, recently things like the discontinued Brother HL-2270 series are more common as discards but have plenty of life left in the hardware. When I got one complete with a couple new toner refills, it was a good time to add it to one of my paperless subnets. Printing which had been non-essential could then become discretionary and the actual cost per page would start at zero and stay that way for the remainder of the toner it had plus the two new cartridges. Well actually only zero compared to other printers considering the cost of the paper is the same. I like this printer better than the equivalent HP's and Lexmark I have kept running in those offices still largely doing full paperwork output for each job. When Windows 11 was released the Brother website posted a message having a positive outlook for compatible drivers to become available for download within a few weeks. That did come true and it turned out better than anticipated since it was still just the same drivers that had been validated for Windows 10. That's the kind of engineering I like. Now they have a detailed list of all their printers supported for Windows 11 with a highly respectable array of discontinued models going back many years. With the printer connected to a regular Windows network, wireless or not, you can fire up a Linux workstation and the printer is easily detected, although you may need to select something like USA Letter Size paper if the default is European A4. Once again I don't recommend actually purchasing a printer when there are so many homeless needing adoption.

b112 5y ago

Thanks for mentioning this. Is there no OSS PPD?

phoronixrly 5y ago
My experience with Brother printers has always included having to download a package containing a PPD + binary blob from their support site after someone blindly bought one because they are cheap/someone suggested them. Always check before buying if you stand by good OSS support.
- b112 5y ago
  Always check before buying if you stand by good OSS support. I typically always do. I have a 20 year old HP colour laser, but it is showing its age. All the praise for Brother printers on HN, somehow short circuited, bypassed my check-it filter. Thanks for kicking it back in gear.
- netizen-936824 5y ago
  Which companies have good oss support in terms of printers?
  - JoshTriplett 5y ago
    HP ships Open Source support for just about every printer they provide. (You have to bypass the pile of steps in the on-printer portion of setup that desperately want to push you into an ink subscription, though.)
xioxox 5y ago
I would check the model. An MFC-L2750DW printed for me from Ubuntu without installing anything.
kalleboo 5y ago
To get a Brother laser working on FreeBSD CUPS I used a community PPD from openprinting.org. Black and white only though (which is fine for our needs)

calcifer 5y ago

You seem to be conflating Linux support with FOSS support. They have nothing to do with each other.

phoronixrly 5y ago
Even if I was, don't you think that good Linux support would require the drivers running on architectures different from x86? For example you can't use this printer on a Raspberry Pi: https://support.brother.com/g/b/downloadtop.aspx?c=us_ot&lang=en&prod=dcp395cn_all https://support.brother.com/g/b/downloadtop.aspx?c=us_ot&lan... You get a choice of a deb or an rpm packaging the following blob: > brcupsconfpt1: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib/ld-linux.so.2, for GNU/Linux 2.2.5, stripped
- ekianjo 5y ago
  > For example you can't use this printer on a Raspberry Pi very uncommon use case...
  - joepie91_ 5y ago
    Not really. RPi printing server setups are somewhat common.
- gunapologist99 5y ago
  You can normally use a generic PCL or PS driver (or another brother cups driver), if it's a Brother laser printer. If it's an inkjet, YMMV.
- tadfisher 5y ago
  Brother MFCs support IPP Everywhere (aka AirPrint), so you shouldn't need drivers in the first place. If the UI doesn't let you use the IPP Everywhere driver, you can add it with lpadmin -p myprinter -E -v "ipp://<address>/ipp/port1" -m everywhere The printer's web interface should give you the exact IPP/AirPrint URL to use.