I'm currently looking for a printer. I want a Laser printer, black & white should be enough, but color may be ok too if not too expensive (especially toner). I guess I prefer a network one, even if I don't really understand the way everything should work.
As I understand it, a network printer just listens on a defined port (9100/jetdirect or ipp/63), and prints jobs sent by a spooler. There is no integrated spooler, so there are two solutions:
- install a cupsd on every box where I need to print (which is OK but a bit sub-optimal, imho, but I may be wrong)
- install a cupsd on only one box, wich will be the print server, and uses its address in /etc/cups/client.conf on every box I need to print on. This is ok, but on a home network there's no real need for a network printer in that case.
Maybe I shouldn't buy a network printer and just pick a usb one (especially since the FreeboxHD can serve as a laser printer if one plugs a usb printer on it. It listens on 9100/jetdirect so one can configure cups to pick it).
I've currently narrowed my choices to:
- Samsung ML-2571n
- Lexmark e250dn wich is bigger but does duplex
Moe on #xfce avised me to pick a printer a bit more expensive, because it would be safer on a long term, and advised:
I don't really know what to do so, dear lazyweb, I'm asking you. What should I pick? This is for a home installation where we don't really print that often, so I don't want to spend too much, but where goodies like network and duplex printing are cool to have. Cups support is mandatory (except if there's another way to print easily, especially from gtk apps)