MX Linux Forum

Hi,

My printer (HP OfficeJet Pro 8610) died this week and we had a pretty good run... I've always bought HP because they were so well supported on Linux but I've read in many places that their quality has gone out the Window so I'm afraid to love again...

What are the good folks at the MX forum using in their home offices for printing? I'd like something plug and play if possible and any brand is fine as long as it's supported. I don't mind paying decent money for good value in hardware so cheap for the sake of cheap is not a requirement.

Small form is also fine, I don't really need a behemoth like the 8610 again..

If your wanting to stay with inkjet then personally I think the Epson EcoTank printers are fantastic AND they scan pretty well too. ( ET-2850 all the way up to the 5850, depending up on your use.)

If your after a laser.. the some of the brothers are very good.

My linux people on both of these are very happy. (Windows too ) . I personally have a canon workforce and a VERY old HP 2000, both are serious work horses.

I just got a HP SmartTank 7602. A little more money up front, but it uses the high capacity ink tank system, so the ink is a lot cheaper. (black is less than a penny per page).

I do almost all my printing to B&W laser printers. Cost per sheet for toner is less that 1¢ US. I currently have two. My Samsung M3320 is about 12 years old. My HP Laserjet 3055 is over 15 years old. Both are trouble-free and the HP 3055 is uber compatible. Almost any PCL or PS driver will work. Toner cost for the older HPs are extremely low. My cost for that printer is more like 1/4¢ US per sheet. I use it the most.

The cost of supplies for any color inkjet printer will be higher. In the past I've had horrible reliability with multiple Epson inkjet printers. A year ago, I inherited my dad's HP OfficeJetPro 6970. I decided to keep it since I didn't have a color printer. It's reliable but costly to feed ink. It's more of a novelty that I seldom use.

Your mileage may vary.

figueroa wrote: Sat Mar 01, 2025 11:44 pm I do almost all my printing to B&W laser printers. Cost per sheet for toner is less that 1¢ US. I currently have two. My Samsung M3320 is about 12 years old. My HP Laserjet 3055 is over 15 years old. Both are trouble-free and the HP 3055 is uber compatible. Almost any PCL or PS driver will work. Toner cost for the older HPs are extremely low. My cost for that printer is more like 1/4¢ US per sheet. I use it the most.

The cost of supplies for any color inkjet printer will be higher. In the past I've had horrible reliability with multiple Epson inkjet printers. A year ago, I inherited my dad's HP OfficeJetPro 6970. I decided to keep it since I didn't have a color printer. It's reliable but costly to feed ink. It's more of a novelty that I seldom use.

Your mileage may vary.

I to have a black and white Laser Printer as well. The toner last me 3 years easy and the cartridge only cost me $40. I have a Samsung Xpress M2070FW, You get the Linux drivers off their site, a simple script to run. As for color, I go to my local drug store. They have a self-services color printer. All you do bring in you USB stick, flash card press a few button and you'll have your color print. Cheaper than owning a color printer if you don't print many color prints, which I don't.

For me, it's a Black/White Brother wireless multifunction laser printer [print/scan/fax].

Always check the specs of the Brother model in question, since most but not all their machines have Linux drivers/support.

I have been using Brother MFCs since around 2009 on Linux, but you do need to know the quirks, as in, sometimes the driverless detection in certain distros appear to work -- it can see the printer/scanner on your system -- but the URI location the detector finds [or maybe the address format it uses] doesn't actually get the printer working. I tend to have to set the location manually, since I have a fixed home network address for my printer.

Thankfully I always know that if the driverless entry does not work, Brother's own driver that you can download from the page for your particular model will indeed work once you set up the URI location correctly. Plus, for their B/W laser/LED printers, even if you don't install Brother's drivers, I believe the generic "PCL Laser Printer" driver found in the Printer Config's preinstalled list of drivers works just fine.

With the Brother app for smartphones, anyone in my household on the network can print and scan wirelessly from their mobile devices as well.

My previous Brother MFC was a colour LED printer, but I realised it wasn't worth having to buy refills for the 3 other colour cartridges apart from the black one.

I have one of these:
https://www.staples.ca/products/2984889 ... QaEALw_wcB
That I bought in 2020 and it's plug and play with MX. It comes with enough toner pre-installed for 5000 page impressions. The only downside is that it is noisy.

Thanks all for your input! I've never had a Laser printer... hmmmm

99% of my printing is for business books I don't really need color or photo printing, often they fade or degrade anyway..

AVLinux wrote: Sun Mar 02, 2025 2:10 pm Thanks all for your input! I've never had a Laser printer... hmmmm

99% of my printing is for business books I don't really need color or photo printing, often they fade or degrade anyway..

If you don't need colour printing, a monochrome laser is the way to go because toner is cheaper, doesn't dry out or clog.

I have been using a Samsung laser printer for quite awhile now. My latest printer is several years old and very relaible. The only problem I had was that some Linux Distros did not have my printer driver when setting up the printer. There is package in Synaptic Package Manager caleed " Splix ". This is for Samsung printers. I just install that package, go into Printers and it has my required driver. Other than that, my Samsung laser printer has been my friend.