[Novalug] HP vs Brother printers use with Linux

Peter Larsen peter@peterlarsen.org
Sun Jun 28 13:13:00 EDT 2020


On 6/27/20 5:32 PM, Jay Hart via Novalug wrote:
> If you had to rate which printer brand works better with Linux (Fedora and Centos), what would it be?

Hey Jay,
First and foremost, I don't print as much as I used to. But scanning I
actually still do relatively often so we still have a "3-in-1" printer -
should be 2-in-1, because I know of NOBODY who seriously still use a FAX.

The next point before I put my vote into the hat is, that we need to
realize that printer manufacturers do not make money selling printers.
The make money selling ink. Which means their focus isn't on the
software side or even feature. I've quite frankly not found any big new
features on printers for more than a decade. Even speed seems to be
relatively flat-lined.  To me this means going for one printer vs.
another isn't really connected to brand. Since the late 1990ies I think
I've had to deal with every major printer maker's printers and in
multiple models, at home or for work. I've had good and bad experiences
with all of them. It's not that simple ... HOWEVER....

Being a Linux guy what I primarily look at is how easy a printer plugs
into a Linux server/workstations. And the other important aspect is how
long ink lasts, and these days if you can refill ink yourself.  The last
few months I've dug into laser printers research online as I think it's
time to stop paying out the nose for ink per page printed.

Example - HP (our current inkjet printer) claims their extra capacity
ink cartridges can print 300-400 pages. These cartridges cost around $40
on average, you can find them cheaper at times. So on average that's
about 11 cents per page (we actually have two cartridges, and even when
just printing black/white the color one is still used - so you could
double this amount). A (random) laser printer toner (black) can be had
for $150 and will print about 6500 pages (again I don't believe this
number but relative I think we can use it). That's about 2 cents per
page.  Or 5 times less than with ink.  And laser printers aren't that
much more - since HP doesn't sell printers to make a profit - they sell
ink to make a profit.

So I know the next printer will be a laser printer with a scanner on it
- we used to call that a copier :D

How to access from Linux?  I agree with those who point out that
PostScript is relatively standardized and hence will make it easier to
use "any PS printer". But with that said, outside of HP I find I need to
use closed source, not well updated (ie. it's provided as tested with
distro versions so out of date you think you're dealing with antiques).
I still see Fedora 18 or even earlier listed on the "download sites".
These companies do not invest in software - when I used Windows back in
the days, printer software was some of the worst software you could get
on Windows - badly written, performing and a lot more.

So because "hplip" is included with the distros I touch (ie it's not
maintained by HP) it makes it fairly easy to get any HP printer
connected without the need to download odd software. My last Epson
required this and I had to spend a lot of time customizing/fixing the
driver to work on the "modern" Linux and with some system upgrades it
would stop working. Particular scanning would stop working because of
this.  SANE is still my preferred scanning software, and my HP was found
and is easily used.  Note, the windows software that HP provides is
AWFUL - you literately have to first run something on your PC, go to the
printer and find your PC and tell the printer to scan to it.   With
Linux I just put in a page (or multiple pages in the feeder) and go to
easy-scan "app" and hit SCAN to PDF, and I get a PDF with the page (or
pages) in it. I don't have to setup my workstation as a server etc. to
make it work.

Lastly - how you connect the printer also has something to do with how
easy it is to use. I haven't used directly attached printers for a very
long time. I used to insist on having a physical RJ45 receptical so it
was easy to add to the home network. Now that I've "upgraded" the
network to implement full isolation of "smart devices" things have
changed, and I will allow a WiFi connection as how I reach a printer.
BUT do realize how your client finds the printer - in most cases it will
use mDNS (avahi) to announce itself and that's how the print client
software finds it. CUPS does fine finding it - HOWEVER - when you are
paranoid like me, and the network segment the printer is on, is NOT The
same as your Linux workstation, that mDNS doesn't make it to your computer.

Or it will but you'll need to "fix that" on the router by setting up
mDNS replication and now your "smart" devices will happily flood your
other network with "connect to me" messages but they still won't have
access to anything.  Another way is to setup the printer with an old
fashioned static IP and tell CUPS to just use the IP address and not
look for the printer. I've used both methods, and once configured "it
just works".  But the mDNS is the easiest to setup - you literately just
hit "add printer" in the control panel for printers, and the printer is
found, model etc. and everything is configured and it's ready to use. If
you've configured SANE to use networking it too will "just work" and
find the printer when using mDNS.

Of course if you only have one network segment it "just works" when you
plug the printer in too.

USB connected printers should "just work" too - out of the box.

My last real experience with Windows was a long time ago; one of the
things that made me insist that my wife stopped using Windows (she was
the only one left doing it) was when I had to install a new printer on
her Windows computer. 2 DVDs of software!! It was a mess - slow, crappy
and it was clear HP had no clue what they were doing on the software
side.  I grabbed my trusted Fedora back then, hit "add printer" the
printer showed up and it was configured in a few seconds. No extra
software required. So hours of time installing on Windows and a few
seconds on Linux.  When people told me Linux was harder than Windows I
just laughed.

So I focus on how easy it is to manage/configure. And I do not want to
have to download unmaintained and often not working software from these
ink-pushers. Once it's a FOSS driver - I no longer have preferences. I
would simply look at the price per printed page since I rarely find big
differences in quality and speed on the consumer grade printers.


I still have a few old printers in the basement that we stopped using
because they ended up eating ink for lunch. Given the price of ink we
could get a new printer for the $$$ spent in a single month for ink back
in the days. When your ink cost $60 and a new basic ink-jet printer cost
$80 it certainly questions whether you should change ink or change the
printer.

-- 
Regards
  Peter Larsen



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