Linux Printing: Still Awful After All These Years

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Tue, Mar 25, 2008 at 09:26:50PM -0400, D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:
> I find them reasonble and inexpensive.  In fact, it is often cheaper
> to buy a new one than replace the toner cartridge with a genuine
> cartridge.

Of course often the toner cartridges that they come with are not the
same ones you buy (they often contain a lot less toner).  Also the
print engine on many printers has to be primed (filled up) before it
works, which takes a bunch of the first batch of toner, so while it may
look like it is cheaper to just get another printer, it probably isn't,
and certainly is bad environmentally.  Now if the printer ever breaks,
it is hardly worth bothering to get it fixed, unless it is under
warranty in which case they probably just exchange it.

> For example: http://cty.ca/Specials_CTY_Weekly.asp
> $29.99 after rebate for a Brother HL 2030.  (Taxes make that price not
> accurate.)
> I have not used a 2030 but I have used a bunch of other models.
> 
> Cheap laser printers no longer emulate HP printers i.e. PCL is not
> longer the standard printer command set.  This has been true for many
> years.

PCL and Postscript are still the standard languages for printers that
actually bother to have print engines.  Winprinters on the other hand
use whatever proprietary design they want and make the driver on your
system do all the hard work.

> For Brother HL-1435 printers.  It works pretty well when I tell CUPS
> that it is an HL-1250.  I've told the printer database maintainers
> this years ago but no update has appeared on my system.
> 
> A year ago I bought a Brother printer that can do duplex printing
> (print on both sides of the page) and has BR Script (Postscript
> clone).  $100 -- pretty hard to beat.
> 
> I must admit that my own printer is an off-lease Lexmark printer that
> Clifford got me.  He posted earlier about these printers.  I don't use
> its token ring network interface :-)

I would be impressed if you did.

-- 
Len Sorensen
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