Everyone said get a Brother printer so I bought a 3-in-1 scanner and printer. There seems to be something wrong with it though. I plugged it into a Linux laptop, opened a document, pressed print, selected the printer, and it printed. Then I opened simple-scan, pressed scan, and it scanned.
This isn't how printers and scanners are supposed to work. Where do I install the drivers that don't work properly etc? This was no fun. I demand a refund.
My silly post seems to be quite popular so I'll plug my #linux, #sysadmin, and #development #podcasts:
@JoeRess How do you get the scanned output, as a file on the 'puter?
@JoeRess I have one but it is on ink.
Only regret is the lack of auto feeder for scanning/copies.
I don't use that much and that is why I can live with this one but when the rest is the family needs to do those activities...
Always used rechargable tonners and it's solid as a rock
@JoeRess I need brlaser for my brother printer if you wanna trade lol
It's not even a network printer
@CwalkPinoy @JoeRess Your printer is an older model, probably more than 5 years old. But with brlaser and lots of other free software drivers we got ~10000 non-driverless printer models working.
All these drivers are available in most Linux distributions or in the 4 Printer Applications listed here:
https://snapcraft.io/publisher/openprinting
And with #WSL you can also use these Printer Applications under #Windows and save legacy printers there, also when MS will do away with drivers altogether.
@till @CwalkPinoy @JoeRess One option I’ve used with old unsupported printers is that lot of printers will handle PCL and/or Postscript. You might get them to run with a generic driver.
Edit: I read about brlaser, and looks like that is primarily for models without PCL or Postscript. So my idea may be unlikely to help.
@JoeRess Hmmm… as someone in the IT industry I can tell you that you definitely got a lemon. If you don’t have to fiddle with it for hours on end only to print a blank page or if you are able to scan to file with the press of a button, then it isn’t working as designed. I would return it and replace it with something that is a bit more of a headache and makes you question your life choices.
@bcon @JoeRess Brandon. with which operating system are you working? #Windows? There they have introduced Plug'n'Play many years ago, plug in the printer and play for hours with the drivers, and if you are lucky you win the #game and you can print.
Under #Linux and many other operating systems Michael Sweet and me we have created Plug'n'Print, plug in the printer and ...
... print!!
@JoeRess In duckduckgo, I have generally search 'brother printer driver linux' followed by the printer's model name. There is a tool you may download that will install the correct driver for you.
@nantucketebooks I think you're missing the joke. The printer was plugged in and it Just Worked, no driver installation required.
@nantucketebooks @JoeRess true story: initially I made the mistake of installing the Brother print service on my Android phone, which actually *prevented* my phone from discovering my printer for some reason. The built-in default print service works just fine.
@nantucketebooks @JoeRess Just search for 'brother printer linux'. Drop this evil word 'driver'. We do not need it any more.
Or plug in the printer and enjoy printing.
@JoeRess perhaps you have to take out a monthly subscription for the intermittent operation option.
@Brianrh @JoeRess AFAIK there are no subscriptions for Brother. There is another brand trying to make their devices less hated and ending up to have the most hated devices on the market.
https://openprinting.github.io/OpenPrinting-News-January-2024/#hp-madness
@till @Brianrh Check the product page on Amazon that @JoeRess selected. There is *only* mentions of subscription everywhere.
https://fosstodon.org/@JoeRess/112101137340725174
@dolmen @Brianrh @JoeRess Seems that toner subscription is also available for Brother, but it is optional. You can buy the printer without. Note that Amazon is also marketing a bunch of Windows software subscriptions on the same page, but they seem to be from the software vendors and not from Brother.
@JoeRess Mine even started printing over WiFi, without me having to configure anything. There’s definitely something wrong with the printers industry.
@thelinuxEXP @JoeRess Nothing wrong with it, Nick, this is how it is intended. At least in the operating system you are talking about in your videos.
By the way, did you already talk about printing and/or scanning in one or another of your episodes?
@thelinuxEXP @JoeRess i am already looking forward to my HP configuration this morning
@peppe @thelinuxEXP @JoeRess don’t forget the frustration of ‘why is the ink cartridge empty after 5 pages?’
At this point, I am thinking it would be a money-saving tactic to yeet the HP printer, and replace it with a Brother printer, at least then I might have ink left to print with.
@JoeRess but what about all the extra apps that get installed with the drivers? Don't you get those either?
@Workshopshed @JoeRess Probably Joe did not get any of them , as under Linux we make use of that most modern printers, including said Brother, are DRIVERLESS IPP printers. So everything to make them work already ships with the operating system. So no chance for the manufacturer's DoS attacks to your storage and RAM.
@Workshopshed @JoeRess Linux users unfortunately don't enjoy those gifts.
@mastosalo @JoeRess I have many other president candidates to compete with Joe. On every conference where I am there are at least 3 or 4 telling me how well printing works, often sayingthat it is much better than under #windows
@JoeRess computers aren’t meant to interact with paper. It’s unnatural. Moral decay of society etc
@danirabbit @JoeRess Are computers even allowed to interact with your fingers?
@JoeRess rms is malding in the corner in response to this.
@gzt @JoeRess You know that a printing problem made #RMS creating the concept of free software?
https://openprinting.github.io/OpenPrinting-News-September-2023/
@JoeRess hahaha!! There's obviously something wrong with it.
@JoeRess It's always funny to me how Windows users complain about printers. I have a 15+ years old HP printer/scanner, which was the cheapest model at the time, and it always worked without fuss and without installing anything on Ubuntu.
@Rekkert @JoeRess You know that @MichaelTunnell from TuxDigital some time ago in one of his videos said:
There is no such thing like a pain-free experience of printing under Windows … Linux printing is ridiculously good …
https://openprinting.github.io/OpenPrinting-News-November-2023/
@JoeRess I hear a lot of Linux people say to buy a Brother printer.
@JoeRess Next thing you’re going to tell us is that it incorrectly accepted aftermarket ink/toner by accepting them without complaint.
@JoeRess Mine was even more broken, I just logged it into the wireless network and now on Ubuntu I just select it as a printer and it prints to it. Something definitely wrong there.
@JoeRess brother printers are great. Epsons, on the other hand…
@SimonCHulse @JoeRess Yep, love my Brother Laser printer. I think I had to replace the toner once so far in the last 8 years. Toner cartridges are a bit more expensive than ink cartridges, but when I had an ink jet (my last one was HP, I replaced them every year whether I printed anything or not).
@SimonCHulse @JoeRess last year I wanted to check whether or not my old canon printer still worked and it did its best despite only having yellow ink.
@jeremy_list @SimonCHulse @JoeRess must be a pretty old one; modern ones will *not* print if they don’t have all the cartridges.
@SimonCHulse @jeremy_list @JoeRess Or it had dried out but thought it had some left
@SimonCHulse@mastodon.nz @JoeRess@fosstodon.org Epsons are a roulette on if they clog the heads go out of alignment.
I do like my Epson PC-98 clone however but it's jank too, there's literally corrosion on the motherboard to CPU card interconnect.
@SimonCHulse @JoeRess so true that it hurts
@JoeRess
Have you considered getting cute stickers to apply on the outer housing of the machine? That would give you the extended meticulous interaction, and extra cost, that you're missing...
@Kathmandu @JoeRess #OpenPrinting should really start to produce merchandise ...
@JoeRess Sorry for the inconvenience caused
@JoeRess Good to know that Brother is the way to go when I replace our Epson.
@jackyan 100%. Their NZ CEO is a lovely man, I used to go to church with him when I was a boy. I have good memories of him and his wife being incredibly generous donators when my sister and I did 40 hour famine.
(Edit: just googled it and he recently stepped aside after over four decades in the role)
@SimonCHulse We traditionally bought Brother, so this is nice to know. We only switched to Epson because of a computer upgrade and it had a different serial port. Then Epson was a client so we basically got the printers for free. Iʼve been waiting for the opportunity to switch back.
@jackyan @SimonCHulse yeah, I worked at NL for years as you know and they were always my preferred one to recommend cause I knew it was right by the customer in terms of ease of use and general user-friendliness
@JoeRess you’ll anger the printer gods my man. No good will come of that.
@JoeRess I have a MFC-L3750CDW and it works fine. My computers and devices are Apple's though.
@JoeRess I'll plug your podcasts too :)
A ways back I switched tracks and went to work for an academic institution. I'm happy as a clam but looked up and realized I was still burning through $$$ each month as if I were still being paid by a Megacorp, so I scaled way back on Patreon.
The Late Night Linux network is one of the two tech podcasts that remain, and as a Devops/Platform Engineer 2.5 Admins has made valuable contributions to my skill set.
Thank you for all you and the folks in your network do. I sincerely appreciate all the hard work.
@JoeRess I've got the only Linux laptop where I work, so whenever the printer stops printing, there is a small queue of people who I get to greet with a knowing smile and a 'well, well, well'