Hardware that Just Works

Hardware that Just Works

This past November I went shopping for a new laser printer. I became
interested in the Brother line since I had seen a Brother printer in a
special application within the past year and it had worked well. Imagine
my pleasant surprise when their web pages proclaimed Linux support. Then
I found that Officemax was offering an instant rebate so I ordered one.

It arrived the next week and was unbelievably loud. Then I noticed a
white unprinted strip about a quarter inch wide toward the right side of
the page. I had an RMA on it within an hour of opening the box. The
Officemax agent put in an order for another only to discover the
particular model, HL-5240, was on backorder. Fortunately, the replacement
arrived by the end of the week!

This one has been perfect. 1200x1200 DPI, native Postscript support, 30
PPM, quick warmup to print after powerdown sleep (it sleeps as though
completely powered off), and crisp clear print. The key was to not to
bother with their poor attempt at a driver (even in .deb format) and dig
out the PPD file from their website. Since I told CUPS to load the
Brother PPD, it has worked like a champ with full margin control and
proper print alignment.

I couldn't be happier.