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I bought a cheap Brother laser printer 20 years ago, and it works great today. Just plug in the USB cable, and it works on a modern machine with no extra driver

I bought a cheap Brother laser printer 20 years ago, and it works great today. Just plug in the USB cable, and it works on a modern machine with no extra drivers or software. (It's old enough that it still also has a parallel port on it.) I recently replaced the toner and drum with third-party ones, and they work fine - no vendor lock-in.

cam_l 3y ago
I got to the point where I actually buy brother ink for my old brother printers, because it is not that expensive and I really don't want them to go out of business.
- Nifty3929 3y ago
  Right! I’ve got an ancient Brother myself and I feel like paying for it again, for the same reason. I recently upgraded to windows 11, downloaded the official driver and everything worked perfectly within a few minutes. They’re holding the line against BS. No, I do not want to connect to your cloud thing to print a file from my computer, thanks.
crooked-v 3y ago
Sadly, apparently new Brother printers have moved to the crapware model.
- sundvor 3y ago
  Not mine, thankfully. I detailed that in a sibling reply.
sundvor 3y ago
Searched for a Brother comment to reply to - found it, thanks! :-) I don't do a lot of printing, but when I do it's for a real need and I just want it to work. So I got another HL-L2375DW (mono full duplex laser) last year to replace my first which I gave to my ex after separation/divorce - a perfect little unit, not a trace of HP-level BS anywhere to be found. It goes to sleep with minimal power use, and wakes up when needed, even weeks or months between each use - can print straight from my Samsung phone with no extra driver install needed, as well as from PC naturally. I've just set it up on the Wifi, but it also has a network port + USB. Perfect. It was only around 200 AUD; mind you the included toner wasn't the biggest but I only need it for occasional use so it's still going strong. I'll probably get their big drum when it eventually runs out (that's what I did with my 1st, ex printed a lot more than I) and whilst I could go 3rd party I'll just buy theirs anyway to support them in a small way. https://www.brother.com.au/en/products/all-printers/printers/hl-l2375dw-aus https://www.brother.com.au/en/products/all-printers/printers...
- mort96 3y ago
  All the shilling for Brother, both here and on Reddit, is crazy. It seems people are reporting that Brother has stared rejecting third party ink.
  - giggyhack 3y ago
    Maybe there is Brother astroturfing going on, but I've had a similar excellent experience with a Brother LaserJet. It uses 3rd party toner and drums without a problem, rarely jams, prints high volume quickly, is stupid simple to install, and has no software lock.
  - sundvor 3y ago
    Shilling? Yeah, I spent nearly a decade here on HN, building up to the moment of my above post. Got me.
  - account42 3y ago
    > It seems people are reporting that Brother has stared rejecting third party ink. This seems to be a recent development so people who bought a Brother 5 or more years ago won't have run into that bs yet (like who updates their printer firmware, seriously). So its more likely genuine users (that includes me) recommending products that have worked well for them.
- yread 3y ago
  I'm not very happy with my 2375. It somehow lost the wifi connection (pc doesn't see it but printer display shows online) and no amount of resetting got it back. Thank god for the USB cable... And the drivers were acting weird even before that
  - sundvor 3y ago
    Check the router? On my ubiquity unify cloud key admin I can track what devices are connected. Also there's a test page that you can print which should detail the IP address. It could be that the printer got new IP address and your PC is remembering the last, or something like that.
judge2020 3y ago
Not having AirPrint for mobile devices is a loss.
- joecool1029 3y ago
  I use a pi0w with my old USB Brother and it works just fine with airprint. I update it a couple times a year but other than that it's set and forget.
- afavour 3y ago
  There are routers with AirPlay support and USB sockets!
- btgeekboy 3y ago
  It’s super easy to setup CUPS to do AirPrint nowadays. I have a small container on my Proxmox box that just runs CUPS and talks to the printer over the network. I know that’s not accessible for the tech un-savvy, but it’s there for those of us that are.
  - cdchn 3y ago
    This reply is perfect, with "its super easy to setup CUPS with Proxmox" and the username matches and everything. No notes.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
euroderf 3y ago
Another happy Brother user here. What kind of world is it where H-P is even remotely competitive with them ?

cam_l 3y ago

I got to the point where I actually buy brother ink for my old brother printers, because it is not that expensive and I really don't want them to go out of business.

Nifty3929 3y ago
Right! I’ve got an ancient Brother myself and I feel like paying for it again, for the same reason. I recently upgraded to windows 11, downloaded the official driver and everything worked perfectly within a few minutes. They’re holding the line against BS. No, I do not want to connect to your cloud thing to print a file from my computer, thanks.

crooked-v 3y ago

Sadly, apparently new Brother printers have moved to the crapware model.

sundvor 3y ago
Not mine, thankfully. I detailed that in a sibling reply.

sundvor 3y ago

Searched for a Brother comment to reply to - found it, thanks! :-) I don't do a lot of printing, but when I do it's for a real need and I just want it to work. So I got another HL-L2375DW (mono full duplex laser) last year to replace my first which I gave to my ex after separation/divorce - a perfect little unit, not a trace of HP-level BS anywhere to be found. It goes to sleep with minimal power use, and wakes up when needed, even weeks or months between each use - can print straight from my Samsung phone with no extra driver install needed, as well as from PC naturally. I've just set it up on the Wifi, but it also has a network port + USB. Perfect. It was only around 200 AUD; mind you the included toner wasn't the biggest but I only need it for occasional use so it's still going strong. I'll probably get their big drum when it eventually runs out (that's what I did with my 1st, ex printed a lot more than I) and whilst I could go 3rd party I'll just buy theirs anyway to support them in a small way. https://www.brother.com.au/en/products/all-printers/printers/hl-l2375dw-aus https://www.brother.com.au/en/products/all-printers/printers...

mort96 3y ago
All the shilling for Brother, both here and on Reddit, is crazy. It seems people are reporting that Brother has stared rejecting third party ink.
- giggyhack 3y ago
  Maybe there is Brother astroturfing going on, but I've had a similar excellent experience with a Brother LaserJet. It uses 3rd party toner and drums without a problem, rarely jams, prints high volume quickly, is stupid simple to install, and has no software lock.
- sundvor 3y ago
  Shilling? Yeah, I spent nearly a decade here on HN, building up to the moment of my above post. Got me.
- account42 3y ago
  > It seems people are reporting that Brother has stared rejecting third party ink. This seems to be a recent development so people who bought a Brother 5 or more years ago won't have run into that bs yet (like who updates their printer firmware, seriously). So its more likely genuine users (that includes me) recommending products that have worked well for them.
yread 3y ago
I'm not very happy with my 2375. It somehow lost the wifi connection (pc doesn't see it but printer display shows online) and no amount of resetting got it back. Thank god for the USB cable... And the drivers were acting weird even before that
- sundvor 3y ago
  Check the router? On my ubiquity unify cloud key admin I can track what devices are connected. Also there's a test page that you can print which should detail the IP address. It could be that the printer got new IP address and your PC is remembering the last, or something like that.

judge2020 3y ago

Not having AirPrint for mobile devices is a loss.

joecool1029 3y ago
I use a pi0w with my old USB Brother and it works just fine with airprint. I update it a couple times a year but other than that it's set and forget.
afavour 3y ago
There are routers with AirPlay support and USB sockets!
btgeekboy 3y ago
It’s super easy to setup CUPS to do AirPrint nowadays. I have a small container on my Proxmox box that just runs CUPS and talks to the printer over the network. I know that’s not accessible for the tech un-savvy, but it’s there for those of us that are.
- cdchn 3y ago
  This reply is perfect, with "its super easy to setup CUPS with Proxmox" and the username matches and everything. No notes.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]

euroderf 3y ago

Another happy Brother user here. What kind of world is it where H-P is even remotely competitive with them ?