Re: Does anyone know how to configure a Brother MFC-J5720DW with cups?
On Tue 08 Mar 2016 at 12:36:56 +0100, tomas@tuxteam.de wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 08, 2016 at 12:02:14PM +0000, Brian wrote:
>
> [...]
>
> > You are not bothered about the security of the closed source firmware on
> > the printer but are concerned about a closed source driver on the PC/
>
> This is the usual dangerous strawman which leads, at the end, to do
> nothing: "as long as there's something bad happening at X, why would
> you care about Y".
>
> Your harddisk has "closed source" firmware. Heck, your CPU, if any newer,
> has "closed source" firmware (Intel IME, AMD has something similarly
> horrible). Why are you using Debian GNU Linux in the first place?
>
> For me, there's an answer to that, and it is that conquer happens
> gradually, sometimes by reverse engineering, sometimes by persuasion.
> Watch at the evolution of Qualcomm's stance in the wake of Raspberry
> Pi's success for a beautiful example of the second.
>
> As life is, there's no "total victory", but if you do nothing, you
> lose.
I asked a question, one which may give pause for thought and give focus
and direction to what is presumably the chief objective - printing with
a Brother MFC printer. No argument (strawman or otherwise) was given; no
view advanced. No Brother bashing. :)
A pragmatist would take the Brother lpr driver option. Together with the
PPD it offers all the functionality the printer is capable of. As a
matter of interest, the lpr driver is legally distributable by Debian.
Relying on a Generic PPD could lead to satisfactory printing. I'd try it
with a USB connection first. Thinking on, it is possible to adjust the
Brother PPD to not use the lpr driver. This would give a free printing
system on the PC.
The AirPrint facility can also be used to avoid any concerns with
security on the PC.
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