Ideally I am looking for a printer with
- opensource - Hardware, firmware, drivers, All OS support,
- No Shenanigans like mixing up colors, wasting ink in storage, hidden codes
- Easy to maintain and repair,
- low ink cost
- No Wifi or bluetooth
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This probably isnt what you’re looking for, but you never specified a page size so…
I love thermal printers, like the ones that print receipts at the cashier. There’s no ink; you just replace the little roll. They are great for text, just pipe a shopping list to
lpand out it comes.I have a printer for full-sized sheets but there’s no comparison to the thermal on OP’s criteria. Except open hardware… I don’t think there are any printers today that provide schematics.
My experience with a LAN/USB brother printer/scanner helped me forget my HP nightmares, they have drivers for Linux althought Linux recognizes it and uses it without issue or their drivers, and still got a firmware update the other day after more than 10 (i think) years that I have it. Model DCP-L2540DN.
It’s not released yet, but I’ve been keeping my eye on the Open Printer project by Open Tools. You can sign up to get email updates on their Crowd Supply page.
Edit: Sorry, just seeing the no Wifi/Bluetooth, so this might not be the best fit (but it does aim to be fully open source, so maybe in the spirit of what you’re looking for?)
Brother HL-L2310D, super basic black-and-white laser. USB only, no Wi-Fi junk, no “phone app required” crap. Just stick it in, install drivers, and it spits out pages. Toner is cheap and it doesn’t freak out when you don’t use it for a week.
Brother HL-L2370DN, same deal but with wired LAN if you want to share it on a network. Still no Wi-Fi/Bluetooth nonsense. Nice solid little workhorse, prints fast, simple guts, cheap toner, none of that overhyped smart printer fluff.
Bless you🙏
Are their drivers open source?
EDIT: I guess you dont need the official drivers https://wiki.debian.org/Brother
I’ve never installed a manufacturer’s driver for my brother printer across distributions. Even live USB images can print to it with no trouble.
It just depends on the model. Some of them refuse to do anything or just dont scan for example if you dont use the official driver.
I bet it’s more complicated for those multi function machines.
These are by far the best recommendations; I second.
I am having an impossible time finding “N” (network) models in most consumer stores. It seems that they have all been replaced by “W” (wireless) models.
The W models should still have an ethernet port, and you can disable the WiFi.
I didn’t want to assume requirements and OP specifically asked for no wifi/BT. If this is for a secure system then maybe a software disable might not be sufficient.
+1 for the 2370DN. Works wonder (with Linux, Mac and Windows) and replaced a 12 years old model from… Brother that also worked well.
Brother HL-1212w fully FOSS USB only monochrome laser. If you have a router with USB and openwrt installed you can share the printer over the network. Cheap old printer but works great for just printing.