[PLUG] Samsung and HP and Linux printing

Keith Lofstrom keithl at kl-ic.com
Thu Mar 2 18:06:26 UTC 2006


 On Wed, Mar 01, 2006 at 10:16:59AM -0800, Carla Schroder wrote:
> Hurray! HP and Samsung are the only printer vendors, as far as i know, that
> blatantly support Linux.

On Wed, Mar 01, 2006 at 09:35:47PM -0800, Bill Barry wrote:
> My encounter with Samsung linux drivers was not so
> memorable, it involved binary drivers and if I remember
> correctly their installation script overwrote some of my
> configuration files. The printer was an SCX-4016 which
> I eventually had to hook to a Windows machine and use Samba.

I don't know about most Samsung printers, but they do have great
support for some.  I bought a Samsung ML-2010  B&W laser printer. 
It is small (about 14x16 footprint) and cheap ($60 after rebate). 
The toner cartridge does not appear to be "chipped".  It is a USB
"winprinter", but it came with Linux drivers, and a GUI installer
for them, as well as a few pages of the skimpy printed manual
devoted to Linux.  There are also ML-2010 drivers on the web. 

Since I *don't like* manufacturer installers (they usually don't
play well with RPM or hardware management systems like SUSE YAST),
I used open source drivers from the web.  These work fine.

If you need a small and inexpensive B&W laser printer, you should
consider the Samsung.  If you are satisfied with it, a nice thank
you letter to Samsung, mentioning that you are using it with Linux,
will probably encourage them to keep providing Linux support.

I like HP printers better, of course, but they are expensive,
and for the application above, too large.  I have 3 old HP4M+
postscript printers (2 running, one for parts) in places where
I have the space, and in spite of their age they work great. 
At some point, I may purchase an HP color laser, someday, after
my old Tektronix Phaser 350 postscript crayon printer breaks. 
(This from the guy that kept his old Subaru running for 24
years, and is typing this on a Redhat 9 laptop)

Is there a list online of what printers use chipped toners, 
and which do not?

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs



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