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Re: brother printer/scanners

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On 01/02/2017 07:25 AM, Brian wrote:
> On Mon 02 Jan 2017 at 02:05:47 -0500, Gene Heskett wrote:
>
>> On Monday 02 January 2017 00:51:11 Jape Person wrote:
>>
>>> On 01/01/2017 09:29 PM, Gene Heskett wrote:
>>>>
>>>> For a far less secure way than I do it.
>>>
>>> For a far less secure way than you do what? Scanning? You're stating
>>> that you know for a fact that using the WPA-secured wifi connection
>>> between a smartphone and an applet on the smartphone for getting a
>>> scan from an MFC is less secure than installing proprietary software
>>> on your computer to accomplish the scan? Is that really what you're
>>> stating? I wouldn't care to spend the time and energy that would be
>>> required to prove the point one way or another.
>>>
>> Neither do I, and the choice of printers you use, or scanners, becomes
>> considerably more limited when you eliminate the linux drivers supplied
>> by the devices maker, and which I feel I bought as part of the deal when
>> I dropped my card on the counter to pay for the device.  That choice is
>> for you and I to make isn't it?  I did think for a spell that epson was
>
> Debian doesn't force anyone down the path of installing or not
> installing proprietry software so the choice is indeed up to the
> user. The pragmatic view is as sustainable as the opposing view
> until examining what is provided for your money. Your card has
> got you a good printer but it comes with printing software which
> hardly deserves the label "Linux" and which has resisted any
> attempt to have the free portions packaged for Debian. To quote
>
>  https://lists.debian.org/debian-printing/2016/12/msg00082.html
>
>  > * Brother makes it really complicated by bundling various files in
>  > various licenses in literally hundreds of different packages with lots
>  > of overlap and no publicly accessible source repository;
>
> The Brother drivers install in /opt for a start and assume everything
> is located there. The cups wrapper isn't up to scratch and is supposed
> to be run as root. Many PPDs are not distributed directly but embedded
> in shell or C-shell scripts. Temporary printer filters are written.
> 64-bit drivers and drivers for other architectures do not exist. These
> are some of the things we know about. What don't we know?
>
> Finally, there is the matter of LPD. Isn't software based on it
> abandoned? CUPS is the well-maintained printing system of choice; why
> have proprietary LPD core drivers and a wrapper script to make them work
> with CUPS?
>
> Would you pay good money for printer drivers which are badly designed,
> technically substandard and which come with little or no support? Your
> card, your money, your choice.
>
Yup. I didn't want to use the Linux printer drivers provided by Brother 
any more than I wanted to keep the Windows / MacOS software CD that 
comes in the package. They're useless to me. I'm happy enough to see 
others use them, if that's what they really want. But my attitude is 
that I'm buying the hardware, not the weirdware that comes with it.

I wish that those of us in this community who would prefer FOSS drivers 
had a stronger voice with the manufacturers. I recently walked away from 
HP because I thought their increased use of proprietary blobs as driver 
plug-ins in hplip drivers was done in kind of a sneaky manner. (An 
unwary user might not notice that the EULA screen was not for free 
software.) I could have made the same small compromises in functionality 
with HP to avoid the blob that I have made with the Brother printer. But 
I got annoyed with the HP Web site.

In the end, voting with my dollars accomplished nothing for the FOSS 
community, because I simply couldn't find a functional equivalent that 
was free all the way. After a while I just got tired of the research and 
bought something that would work.

My only recourse was to write to both manufacturers to voice my opinion. 
Fat lot of good that will do. But maybe I just like tilting at windmills.

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brother printer/scanners Joel Rees <joel.rees@gmail.com> - 2017-01-02 01:40 +0100
  Re: brother printer/scanners Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2017-01-02 02:30 +0100
  Re: brother printer/scanners Igor Cicimov <icicimov@gmail.com> - 2017-01-02 02:30 +0100
    Re: brother printer/scanners Igor Cicimov <icicimov@gmail.com> - 2017-01-05 04:40 +0100
  Re: brother printer/scanners Jape Person <japers@comcast.net> - 2017-01-02 02:40 +0100
    Re: brother printer/scanners Gene Heskett <gheskett@shentel.net> - 2017-01-02 03:40 +0100
      Re: brother printer/scanners Jape Person <japers@comcast.net> - 2017-01-02 07:00 +0100
        Re: brother printer/scanners Gene Heskett <gheskett@shentel.net> - 2017-01-02 08:10 +0100
          Re: brother printer/scanners Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2017-01-02 13:30 +0100
            Re: brother printer/scanners Jape Person <japers@comcast.net> - 2017-01-02 17:00 +0100
              Re: brother printer/scanners Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2017-01-03 01:00 +0100
                Re: brother printer/scanners Jape Person <japers@comcast.net> - 2017-01-03 04:20 +0100
                Re: brother printer/scanners Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2017-01-04 17:30 +0100
                Re: brother printer/scanners Jape Person <japers@comcast.net> - 2017-01-04 19:30 +0100
                Re: brother printer/scanners Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2017-01-04 20:00 +0100
                Re: brother printer/scanners Jape Person <japers@comcast.net> - 2017-01-04 23:00 +0100
                Re: brother printer/scanners Nicolas George <george@nsup.org> - 2017-01-04 23:10 +0100
                Re: brother printer/scanners John Hasler <jhasler@newsguy.com> - 2017-01-05 00:40 +0100
  Re: brother printer/scanners Ben Caradoc-Davies <ben@transient.nz> - 2017-01-02 05:50 +0100
    Re: brother printer/scanners Joel Rees <joel.rees@gmail.com> - 2017-01-03 06:30 +0100
      Re: brother printer/scanners Jape Person <japers@comcast.net> - 2017-01-03 06:50 +0100
      Re: brother printer/scanners Joel Rees <joel.rees@gmail.com> - 2017-01-03 08:10 +0100
  Re: brother printer/scanners Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2017-01-03 01:20 +0100
    Re: brother printer/scanners Jape Person <japers@comcast.net> - 2017-01-03 04:30 +0100

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