So, I was tired of dropping $45.00 every few months for a new inkjet cartridge for my Espon Stylus 777 printer. They would print a few hundred or less pages and then I'd have to buy a new cartridge. And when one of the colors ran out, I'd have to buy a whole new "color" one which contained the three colors (there are separate black & color slots, so two slots in total). The printer itself refuses to print if even one of the 3 colors is empty, and when one is empty, you have to replace the entire color cartridge.

Anyway, I print mostly black and white, and I figured I could just keep my USB inkjet for color so I went looking for black & white laser printers. Samsung and Brother both tout full Linux support (and I use linux exclusively, although my girlfriend's computer upstairs is windows 98). The other requirement was that it had to have an ethernet port so others in the family could print without my computer having to be on.

The only local retailer around here that sells Samsung is Best Buy, and they had a crappy $99.00 model with no network connection. So I started looking at Brothers. The one I bought was the HL-2070N and it cost $199.00 but had a $30.00 mail-in-rebate. I generally shy away from rebates but even at $199.00 it was cheaper than the other printers they sell (HP, unreliable linux support; Oki-Data, no linux support; konica-minolta, nice printers, linux support, but very expensive; Lexmark [part of IBM], VERY BAD reputation for suing comanies who make toner cartridges).

So anyway, I printed test pages, compared the print quality, and although this one was cheaper it looked awesome so I bought it. Took it home, setup in Linux was a breeze, was printing in no time. Problem was, every page came out of the damn paper CURLED. I can't turn in a resume on curled up paper! It was as if someone rolled it up, held it that way for a while, then set it on the desk. Anyway, I was happy with the purchase EXCEPT for that, but of course that's a significant problem. Print quality was excellent, speed was awesome, network worked without a hitch, linux support was flawless, but it curled paper.

So I went to the internet looking for a solution, and basically, it turns out it's a flaw in the design and Brother is promising it will go away in the next product revision. Which doesn't help me one bit. So I decided to return it.

Generally, if I buy a product and it sucks, I try not to buy that same brand again. But in this case, Brother has provided excellent Linux support (which counts for a lot in my book), great print quality, fast speeds, and they even admitted that there was a problem. So instead of picking another brand, I read a bunch of reviews on the Brother HL-5170DN, the next one up, but that also includes automatic duplexing (double-sided printing). The price is of course a bit higher but what I want are flat pages! So I ordered this printer from Staples.com (I had bought the previous one from the local Staples store). I'm glad I found that site because they were offering a $50.00 instant savings coupon through their web site which wasn't available in their store. So the printer was $299.00 - $50.00 = $249.00 + tax (free shipping). It came two days after I ordered it (I think they UPSd it from the local store).

Just finished setting it up, Linux support is perfect, no problems whatsoever, and the pages are flat. So I highly recommend the Brother HL-5170DN if you are looking for a networked laser (black & white only) with duplexing, linux support, fast speeds, and great print quality at a reasonable price.

And now, for about the same price as an inkjet cartridge that spit out less than 500 pages, I can get a regular toner cartridge that spits out 3500. And if I pay $25.00 more I can get the high-yield one which prints 6700 pages.

So I am happy about my printer

Awesome!

I got a Samsung laser printer for the Linux support as well. Works great. I got a little over 500 pages out of the original "starter" cartridge before it started to fade. A full cartridge is supposed to last a lot longer. I love it.

Sweet. However, my next purchase looks to be a gig of RAM. \m/

Same here.

Also, you can always use the plastic-sheet thingies to slide your resume in.

>.>

But I'll keep in mind Brother's laser if I will use Linux (which is inevitable)

I've got a Samsung ML-1740 and I love it.

A thing about toner cartridges...you can refill them yourself for very cheap. Search eBay for "toner refill kit", Google as well. My dad's done it on my mom's ML-1710 as well as a few old HP LaserJets, it's fantastic. All you do is melt a hole in the cartridge with a soldering iron or hot knife (don't drill it since you don't want shavings in the toner cartridge), pour in the toner and put a peice of tape over the top. Some even have removable rubber plugs exactly for this purpose. I think my dad said it was something like $10 for a kit of 3 bottles of toner. Dirt cheap...

I don't like epson printers b/c when you buy a new cartridge, you don't get a new print head like with many other brand of printer. After about a year of heavy printing, your epson print heads are clogged and worn out, so your prints look like s*** from then on.

Also, once installed, epson print cartridges cannot be removed again once you install them if you don't want to forfeit any remaining ink. God I hate that.

I haven't touched a Brother product in a long time. Hmm.

Printers these days are pretty much "plug it in and use"?

Haha you pay $45 for an Epson cartridge? Holy crap that's a ripoff.

I pay $0.97 for black, $1.89 for color on my Epson. The other higher end models aren't much more.

If ya want, I can look into how much your cartridges are, and you can order like a box full and not have to worry about it for about 5 years :p

That's only on very few printer models, and happens on other printers too. I take mine out when I won't be using the printer for a long time and seal them up. I put em back in a month later, and they work fine. The print head thing can get annoying, but nothing a little brushing can't take care of.

I work at Xerox for a summer job, in the Engineering department. I'm basically looking at the Developer module, testing for contamination.

What this actually entails is printing out 3000 copies of a test template, taking some samples, and then counting and analysing spots and marks on the paper. I've now done this whole thing on six machines. Press print, sit back, play solitaire for the next hour. I'm very good now.

I'd rather just get a new print head with every new cartridge. Epson is just lazy and cutting corners by not doing that, it makes me think that epson printers are built using the planned obsolescence principle, where things have a deliberately short lifespan, like light bulbs and razor blades. A printer with a nonreplacable worn out print head certaintly is obsolete in relation to a new one. I don't feel like playing that game when I have viable alternatives. It's not like Epson's print quality is exceptionally better than any other brand's print quality anyway.

I just use the printers at work when I have a big heavy print job, cause I'm a cheap *******. Make them pay for the paper and toner, ha!

Not exactly. I had to copy a .ppd file from the installation CD which was included in the box to a specific directory on my linux box. That is basically the "driver" which allows CUPS (the printing subsystem) to interface with the printer. Then I went into the CUPS administration section, clicked "add printer," gave it a name and description, chose "networked printer" then typed the IP address, then selected the model from the list (the model wouldn't show up unless you add that .ppd file). Clicked OK and then "set as default" and that was it.

I've never used a duplexing printer before, it's really strange. When you choose to print duplexed it actually prints one side, spits it out, then sucks it back in and prints the other side. Odd. It's strange watching paper get sucked in the slot that it normally comes out of.

Duplex printers are so awesome. And Brother's are nice too. What's really great is when you combine duplex and two-page-per-side. One time I printed a hundred-page manual on 25 sheets of paper with a few clicks. Fold, staple, instant user's manual.