• terminhell@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      10 months ago

      A lot of business class printers require no drivers, as it’s built into the printer itself. My little bw xerox printer I have at home is like this. It’s OS agnostic too. So any device on my lan can just connect to it and print.

      Home consumer grade stuff is an absolute nightmare, and has been for a while now. I mostly deal with biz class stuff, but the rare time I deal with consumer grade makes me wanna pull my beard off.

      • IHeartBadCode@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        10 months ago

        Yes this! Spending a little extra to get a good laser printer that’s made for the small office or home office makes all the difference.

        I’ve got Linux computers, a Windows 10, two Macs, Android tablets, an iPad, three Android phones, two iPhones, and five Pis. None of them have problems printing to my Brother laser printer out of box without a driver via IPP.

        The shitty consumer, we’re just selling you ink in a roundabout way, kinds of printers are the ones that require bloatware. Stay away from those and you’re golden.

        • HidingCat@kbin.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          10 months ago

          Brother lasers are great, I always tell people to get those. Inkjets are only for photos, and even then, we’re talking at least 5-6 colour printers that start at US$500, not the cheap consumer shit at US$100 or less.

    • leftzero@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      10 months ago

      Wasn’t it precisely this question that got Richard Stallman started on the whole free (as in speech) software thing…?