[JohnBooty]

I thought this too! Then I saw the light. Get the cheap Brother laser printer "that everybody has" in the article that is linked from the linked article (the linked linked article?)

https://www.theverge.com/23642073/best-printer-2023-brother-...

Seriously. It's so stupid simple. It rules. It juuuuuust prints. No DRM, no nothing. No apps to install. (I think it has apps, but you don't need them. I certainly didn't install any) It costs like $120. I actually bought one model up for $150 that also does duplex printing.

This is the printer that you are wishing for. It certainly is the one I was wishing for. Can't believe it existed. Wasted so much time and frustration on inkjets.

[bpye]

I have the wired version of this - the HL-L2300D - and it has been fine too. The one issue with the wired version is that there are no good Linux drivers, brlaser [0] kind of works - but fails with certain documents.

[0] - https://github.com/pdewacht/brlaser

[Aloha]

I've run around 5500 pages thru the HL-L2300D's using brlaser with no issues - I'm wondering what documents fail?

[crazygringo]

Yup I've been using mine for years and years.

But honestly, I don't understand it in the context of capitalism.

Why does just this one good printer exist? Why doesn't it have competitors? Or if competitors aren't economical to exist, why does this one still exist?

I'm thankful it's here. But I can't think of any other product category at all where there's only one really good one and then everything else is overpriced crap.

[JohnBooty]

Wait, I'm not sure that's true at all but I do think there's an interesting question there.

Brother has a whole bunch of monochrome laser printers from $120 up to $250ish depending on if you want duplex printing, wireless, document scanning, multiple paper trays, etc. From what I can gather they're all well-regarded? HP, Canon seem to also have decent offerings in that price range though based on a totally unscientific review of scanning Amazon ratings it seems like people like the Brothers best.

I think it's just an issue of inkjets versus lasers.

Inkjets are just horrible. Every single freaking one. Why are they so bad? The ink cartridges always dry out and stop working unless you print on a regular basis, and they all have some weird predatory business model based on selling you a bunch of ink that you don't need. It feels like they lose money on the printer and bank on you buying a bunch of ink later on.

So how did monochrome laser printers in the same price range avoid that weirdo predatory business model? That's my question. I can't really imagine that a laser printer is any cheaper to manufacture than an inkjet printer.