[LAU] OT: printers

Ken Restivo ken at restivo.org
Thu Sep 15 04:09:18 UTC 2011


On Wed, Sep 14, 2011 at 10:12:49PM -0400, Rob wrote:
> On Wednesday 14 September 2011 21:35, Ken Restivo wrote:
> > I said "I'm just looking for a printer that doesn't suck, and where the
> >  cost of the ink cartridges isn't more than the printer costs".
> 
> Well, the fact that you said "ink cartridges" probably means you're not 
> interested in this, but we got a Brother HL-2140 laser a couple years ago 
> from Newegg for 60 bucks and the generic toner available for it is about 25 
> bucks. We have it set up on our Linux server and access it from our Linux 
> laptops through CUPS, and we've printed thousands of pages without a 
> problem.  It was totally plug and play under Ubuntu Hardy, so it's been 
> around a while.  Newegg has a newer model with duplex for 80 bucks as I 
> type this, but it seems to have been a sale that ends tonight. I have no 
> idea if the new ones still use the same driver.
> 
> But it is black and white, and a laser, so not as energy-efficient as an 
> inkjet.  We got an HP Officejet 4500 g510n (they really need to rethink 
> their naming scheme) all-in-one, mostly for scanning but do what little 
> color printing we need to do on it.  We had to mess around with it a bit to 
> get it working on Ubuntu 9.10, but 10.04 and up seem fine.  
> 
> We're able to print to it and scan from it over wifi without hooking it up 
> to a computer.  A full set of first-party ink runs about 40 bucks, but 
> we're still on our first set so I can't comment on how long they last.  You 
> can find "remanufactured" (meaning refilled) ones for a little less, but I 
> don't think I've seen generic ink for it yet. I don't think I'd print my 
> family photos on it or anything, but my old standby Epson has really fallen 
> hard for the "charge more for the toner than the printer" model the last 
> few years.  So, any port in a storm.
> 


Thanks to everyone for replies!

Yes, a laser would be a much better solution, since I only print black-and-white anyway most of the time.

However, I hadn't even considered lasers, since the last laser printer I bought (and not with my own money) was like $5000 (in the early 1990s).

But I guess they've come down a lot in price. A laser for US$60? That's awesome, and right in my price range.

Thanks all. I'll have a look at some of the low-end lasers you mentioned, from HP, Lexmark, Brother, etc.

Thanks!

-ken


More information about the Linux-audio-user mailing list