Bought a new brother laser printer (fuck hp inkjet), decided to print something on Windows. Typical Windows could detect the printer even though it shows up in the network section as a device. Downloads and install barebone driver from brother website still refuses to work. Logged in to Linux mint 1 second later “New Brother DCP-L235DW printer has been added”. I wasted more than half an hour trying to print something on Windows and on Linux didn’t even need a single click to configure the printer.
I dont use Linux much, but when it come to Linux it just works without doing anything (atleast on mint).
Just want say how Windows sucks, even my phone was able to print without additional software.
Printers have always been an issue, especially recently. They love their home-grown (likely inaccessible, I might add) UIs. We had an HP and it was a complete shitshow - the Windows driver would crash whatever app invoked the print dialog for the second time. HP suggested installing their app from the Microsoft store - absolute garbage as you might imagine.
Shit worked flawlessly with Linux.
I replaced the heap of steaming shit with a Xerox Laser printer. Given their corporate background they have less weird shit going on, and that did pay off for my wife’s Windows machine. Oh boy, is it still so much more reliable under Linux. I need to install a PPD, which means digging into the CUPS management and things could definitely use improvement there (it works flawlessly, but it’s confusing and ugly).
Scanning is sometimes a little hit-and-miss though.