Andy Random wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Anybody have any experience or opinions on this beastie:
>
> http://www.ebuyer.com/product/120362
>
> It's a colour laser printer with a network interface for 120UKP which
> seems like a great deal to me...
>
> Am I just out of touch with printer prices or is there a catch?
I have a samsung clp500 (given to me for free). I would not recommend
samsung printers to anyone wanting Linux support. The open-source splix
project is getting there (unfortunately not available in debian etch),
but I experienced frequent cups backend crashes when using them.
Samsung do release some closed source Linux/CUPS drivers, but I didn't
have much luck getting these installed & working correctly.
The catches (at least for the CLP-500) are:
* The toner cartridges that come with the printer are only 1/2 full (a
common practice I believe).
* Replacement cartridges cost the same as the original printer £80 x 4
for the CLP500.
* The last point wouldn't be so bad if you couldn't see how much toner
the printer was wasting. Samsung have fitted a large disposable
waste toner bin that rapidy fills up. There's an optical sensor that
checks a window through the bin and decides when the bin is full
(actually when the window is dirty) and prompts you to replace the
bin - £10, and a large lump of plastic sent to landfill (which is why
I try to re-use mine by emptying and cleaning the window).
* It takes about 5 mins of clunking & whirring to warm up and get the
first page out - if you're lucky and the waste bin is not "full" or
the printer has decided that is has an "invalid imaging unit".
That said, I seem to have a miserable time with all printers. Least
troublesome seems to be my HP Officejet 6210 MFP. I'm now considering
a nice economical B/W laser - probably another HP.
If you go for one, I hope you have a better time than we've had :-)
Chris.
