[kwlug-disc] Brother Laser All-In-One, colour and monochrome

[Chris Irwin]

On Tue, Feb 09, 2021 at 07:49:58PM -0500, Khalid Baheyeldin wrote:
>So this is a question on a topic that was discussed in the past.
>
>Background: Costco is shutting down their photo centres, which refill ink.
>This means there are no good options for refilling certain ink jet
>cartridges.
>
>My question is: anyone using Brother laser all-in-one colour or monochrome,
>that has an Ethernet port?
>Did you get it working with Linux fully? Using the driver from Brother's web
>site or some other way?

I used a brother HL-4040CDN colour laser for a few years. I eventually 
had something fail in it, but that was more to the environment (damp 
basement it was kept in) rather than the device. I wanted something with 
a scanner, so replaced it with an inexpensive b/w Oki.

The key thing I've learned is to get a printer that can process 
Postscript or PCL, and you'll never need to worry about drivers. I never 
installed the Brother driver pack to use mine. Even if your printer 
isn't on the list, you'll be able to configure a generic PS or PCL 
printer and manually select your capabilities (colour, duplex, etc).

One point of warning, I did buy another Brother printer before my Oki 
that advertised scan to email on the box (a must-have feature for me).  
Turns out it was via link with desktop software only. So maybe look up a 
review first to be sure that the features on the box are actually 
features on the printer.

-- 
Chris Irwin

email:   chris at chrisirwin.ca
  xmpp:   chris at chrisirwin.ca
   web: https://chrisirwin.ca