Recommendations for a color, full duplex, laser printer?

Another printer company (Brother) has fallen to the allure of “remote disable” if they object to you using your own device in a way they don’t like: trying to self-service, use third party inks, whatever. It’s at their discretion. Given printers are the sorts of devices to which you tend to want to have network access, preventing this is a lot of work.

I’ve been looking at color duplex laser printers, and Brother has been at the top of the list, until they recently announcement that they’d disable printers using third party inks.

BIFL to me implies that the company isn’t going to actively sabotage self-service, or restrict your usage of the thing, so I think this is an appropriate question for this c/.

  • nomad@infosec.pubEnglish
    3·
    9 个月前

    AFAIK the judgment is still out. Brother denies the claims and is working with Rossman to remedy that. Wait a few days with your judgment and purchase would be my recommendation.

    • BartyDeCanter@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      1·
      9 个月前

      Yeah, the people having problems with Brother printers aren’t saying that they aren’t working, but rather that print quality is bad. With it appearing to happen to just a few people my guess is that a few poor quality cartridges went out from a third party factory. Give it a week or two if you can and we’ll find out for sure.

  • pdqcp@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    3·
    9 个月前

    I bought a refurbished old laser brother 5 years ago and it’s a tank. I’d go that route again personally

  • Steve@communick.newsEnglish
    1·
    9 个月前

    As far as I know there’s none.
    I’m pretty sure Brother is the last hold out against the dark side.

    • activistPnk@slrpnk.netEnglish
      3·
      9 个月前

      Oki (formerly Okidata) has always had the ethical higher ground, above Brother, AFAICT. Brother does partake in ink waste shenanigans with their inkjets. IIRC, the only negative with Oki is they write that non-Oki toner voids the warranty – but don’t they all?

      ⚠ But note that you cannot be in the US. Oki pulled out of the US marketplace.

  • dumblederp@aussie.zoneEnglish
    1·
    9 个月前

    I’d keep an eye out for second hand Brother printers. I’ve got three and they’re all going great.

  • BradleyUffner@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    9 个月前

    Keep in mind that the “primary source” for the entire Brother printer thing is a single unverified 3 year old Reddit post.

    I have a Brother MFC L8900CDW (color laser) on the latest firmware, and just tested some 3rd party toner. It worked without complaint.

    As a bonus, printing and scanning both also worked flawlessly in Linux, right out of the box, without any special drivers or futzing, if you care about such things.