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Comment by NotYourLawyer | Hacker News Reader

HP is trash. Is Brother still decent, or have they also started enshitifying their printers?

I have a couple of Brother Laser Printers at home, as well as several Brother Label Printers at work - Haven't had any issues to date. All work great under both Windows and Linux.

I've used both genuine and aftermarket Toner for the Lasers and the same for the Label printers without issue.

For label printers, avoid Dymo like the plague. They stopped Linux support and now include bidirectional RFID chips in their label spools to lock out after-market supplies. The remaining label count is decremented on the chip as you print.

How recently did you buy your Brother printers? I've been hearing that the more recent ones are including ink DRM.

I need to replace my printer and will go with a laser, but I've been getting such mixed signals about various brands that I have no idea which one would be acceptable. I'd love to hear that Brother is an acceptable one.

Not the commenter you originally addressed, but I used to use a Brother printer that was purchased around 2016-2017. I once bought third-party cartridges and the printer noticed that the cartridges weren't first-party and refused to print. I can't recall the model number, but it was an inkjet printer, not laser.

I didn't have any other objections to the printer, for what it's worth.

The brother inkjet I purchased four years ago was much harder to get fake chipped cartridges for than previous models. I got there I the end but at greater cost than I expected. I wouldn't buy another basic brother inkjet any more. In the past they did t even have chips. It has now died and I have just about given up compatibles or refilling. The manufacturers are getting too clever and the market for hacks is disappearing with the consumer printer market. Pay up for a tank filled inkjet or a laser now I think.

Hello, I have a 10+ year old MFC-9335CDW and a ~1 year old MFC-L3760CDW laser, so far no issues with DRM - I buy the aftermarket cartridges from InkStation[1], but they seem to be just generic rebrands

The label printers are 5+ year old QL-500 (x 3) and a ~3 month old QL-810W (x 2 at he office). I really hope they're not taking the DRM route for future models!

[1] https://www.inkstation.com.au/brother-mfcl3760cdw-toner-cart...

Keep in mind that even Brother is not immune to this and saying this as a Brother owner myself. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31860131

Yes Brother is decent. I only print a few pages a year, but I purchased a large Brother laser printer just so I never have to deal with printer bullshit again.

Keep in mind that even Brother is going to the dark side. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31860131

Reply on news.ycombinator.com