[zanny]

I pretty much exclusively buy Epson XP-420's nowadays. What other all-in-one option is there that meets the following criteria?

1. Complete and free Linux support

2. Wireless

3. Affordable - remember, we are competing with a printer that regularly retails for $40 and whose cartridges cost around $10 per set. "Just buy the $200 Brother with $40 a set toner" isn't satisfactory to the people I recommend printers to.

HP printers are known to be draconian with their cartridge DRM, and their Linux support is kind of a PITA with how they use their own protocol and suite of tools and every HP printer I have tried has never played nice with Cups management.

[JohnTHaller]

Since most folks only print black and white for occasional stuff (forms, taxes, resumes, etc), something like the Brother HL-L2320D mono laser printer is a good bet. Works with Linux (rpm and deb available from their site), wireless, affordable. It's under $90 and toner is $30 for 1200 pages (2.5 cents per page) or $49 for 2600 pages (1.9 cents per page). Compare that to $13 for 175 pages (7.4 cents per page) with the Epson.

If you don't need wireless, bump down to $68 for the HL-L2320D. For both printers, good 3rd party toner is about $10 for 1000+ pages to save even more. I listed only first-party numbers above.

If you really want to print pictures at home, you can on a "cheap" inkjet. But it'll cost you overall more per print (due to ink drying out, etc) and be worse quality than you can get from a local pharmacy, office store, or printer. A good quality inkjet for photos is another story, but quite a bit pricier.

[zanny]

This is not just for me though, I consult and regularly recommend printers to clients. If they are business scale we always go laser, but home users do not want to hear they should buy multiple printers for b/w + color printing, and they don't want to buy a scanner separately (the 2340D is perfect except it lacks a scanner).

In many cases, it is hard enough to get them even remember what the print icon looks like, how to use ctrl-p, or that the word "Print" is in the file menu. Trying to get the tech illiterate to not only manage two printers, but also replace ink and toner for both of them, is crazy.

And the thing is nobody in this is printing often. Frequent printers should always buy laser, we know that, that is established. But we are talking about the once a week printers who just want everything for cheap. What better alternatives are there for that use case than an Epson 420?

[JohnTHaller]

I usually recommend lasers to very infrequent printers as well due to the likelihood of an inkjet cartridge drying out or clogging up between infrequent printings.

And you caught my copy pasta error. The first reference was indeed to the 2340D not the 2320D.

[russdill]

I've never had anything but plug and play it just works with HP network/wireless printers. The Linux stuff works far more reliably than the Windows drivers.

For $100, you get a wireless/ethernet dual sided printer that can also has a sheet fed scanner.

The main downside of the HPs is the cartridge cost, along with the DRM and the annoying "this cartridge is expired" messages you need to click through.