Small laser printer for Ubuntu - recommendations?

[Gene Heskett]

On Monday 06 September 2021 06:20:37 Chris Green wrote:

> On Mon, Sep 06, 2021 at 04:26:51AM -0400, Gene Heskett wrote:
> > On Monday 06 September 2021 03:52:34 Volker Wysk wrote:
> > > Am Montag, dem 06.09.2021 um 08:40 +0100 schrieb Chris Green:
> > > > I'm after a small, i.e. reasonably transportable, laser printer
> > > > that works well with Ubuntu (actually xubuntu but that makes no
> > > > odds).
> > >
> > > From what I've heard, Linux support is no problem for most laser
> > > printers. So you might look for a small printer, and check for
> > > Linux support afters.
> > >
> > > Bye, Volker
> >
> > I have had many years of service from Brothers cheapest laser, the
> > latest of which even does duplex for a few over $100 USD. You might
> > need to dl the driver for linux from the Brother site but its a Just
> > Works at about 20 ppm on debian.
>
> Thanks, yes, Brother seem to be a reliable choice with Linux.
>
TL;DR

There are exceptions to that rule. I also have a Brother HL-3170CDW 
sitting on the floor behind me, for around 5 years now, and which has 
lost its corona wire high voltage. As a CET, I'll see about fixing it 
someday because it was a heck of a good and fast color printer. For 
about 25 reams of paper. But Brother refused to sell me the corona 
generator board, with out first selling me $800 dollars worth of drums 
and cartridges I didn't need first.

Pointing out that I am a CET (them are rare birds indeed) and fully 
capable of working with higher voltages and amps than that was simply 
not a choice on their support help's menu's. One of the tv transmitters 
I maintained for 8 years used 300kwh of electricity for every hour it 
was on the air. So I am qualified for dangerous voltages since its high 
voltage was 20,000 volts and could supply 15 amps on a 24/7 basis.

So I bought one of their tabloid sized ink squirters, an MFC-J6920DW that 
did very pastel colors on wheezy, but works much better on stretch so 
I'm in no great hurry to fix the color laser. The  MFC-J6920DW is a huge 
monster, and extremely difficult to feed tabloid paper straight thru a 
rear slot even after I made a feed ramp, but it does work and the 
tabloid does reduce by half the number of pages I have to print, cut up 
and tape together to get a full rockhopper output of the logic driving 
my CNC metal carving machines, 2 lathes ad 2 mills. But to tape that up 
and mount it takes up most of a 4x8 sheet of plywood per machine and 
there's 4 of them.

Clearly, I have too many hobbies. I'll be 87 in a month, and will 
probably fall over before I get it done, but I'm a survivor, and he 
isn't ready for me yet, so the medics keep patching me up. Pacemaker, 
bunch of stents and a heart valve so far. Pacemaker battery is rated for 
10 years. Got 7 to go. ;-)
> --
> Chris Green


Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
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