Re: Printer brand recommendations

On Wed, Sep 11, 2013 at 5:59 AM, Alan Greenberger <alanjg@ptd.net> wrote:

On 2013-09-10, Ross Boylan <rossboylan@stanfordalumni.org> wrote:
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> Short version: Brother doesn't support linux. I'm considering Lexmark.
>
> I too am looking for a B+W laser printer. I just got a Brother HL 5450 to
> replace a 5150 I had. It fails to print some pages, and I'm sending it
> back because Brother says they do not provide phone support for Linux.
> They used to have an email address for linux, but a query there produced no
> answer. It's supposed to be postscript compatible; since there are issues
> I wonder if that's in software rather than hardware.
>

I have an HL5450 running well under Squeeze amd64. Perhaps you haven't
jumped through all the installation hoops:

I definitely have not. I wasn't wild about having only 32 bit drivers and, since the printer claims to provide postscript compatibility, it didn't seem to me that should be necessary.

I guess maybe some of the postscript support is in the software, not the hardware. It seemed to have trouble with graphics (it would spit out a page with a few lines of postscript code and then many blank pages), though plain text documents often worked.

At any rate, I don't really want a printer for which the manufacturer will not provide phone support. So I sent it back, and let Brother know why I was doing that with the pithy "no support = no sale".

Ross