I can add that we have two Bother multifunction laser machines at work (in addition to three of the venerable HL-2360's) and the fucking things will lose scanner association with the PC's in our office at the drop of a hat, all the time, for no identifiable reason. And there is no way to reassociate a printer with a computer short of uninstalling and reinstalling the driver package, after which point it'll inevitably cack itself in a week or two anyway.

The things print just fine but getting them to scan is like pulling teeth. Everyone in our office but me is afraid of the scanners on top of the things now, they can never figure out how to make them work, and even when they do it right we invariably found that their computer has magically and silently lost connection with the scanner component -- and only the scanner component. The software side of these things is garbage.

The software side of all printers is probably garbage, as you say. For instance, my Canon ImageClass at home scans just fine, but there's no way to make it do double sided scanning through the sheet feeder by default, or from any preset or option the screen on the printer itself. You have to set up a custom preset via the driver tool on a PC, it can only remember two presets, and you can't rename them. So you just have to know that "Custom 1" is double-sided-scan-from-sheet-feeder-and-make-it-into-a-pdf. You can set it up to do a different thing in "Custom 2," and then just fuck you I guess if you ever need to do a third thing.

Etc., etc.

I've got a Brother laser printer myself last year, and I like the printer, but I'll agree their software is bit of a hot mess. I used to have an old Canon multi-function laser printer that wasn't locked to 1st party toner, and their software was much easier to install and use. But it finally broke down after >10 years of moderate use and the new models are reportedly DRMed, so Brother was the only decent option.

I have a consumer grade Brother and it's pretty good, but it has stuff I just can't fix:

• wireless G only - it has Ethernet, so it's fixable
• scan to PC doesn't seem to work - I just use a USB drive, so it works
• copies and scans use the built-in display, so if that breaks, I'll probably be SOL

It's about as good as a consumer printer gets. I paid $150 or so for it, and it has lasted 8-ish years so far without any issue (I only remember one jam, which took 5s to fix).

But I'd like it so much more if it had open firmware and open schematics. If it did, I could probably fix each of the above issues, as well as implement a ton of cool features. I'd start by making the web page a lot better, making scan to my Linux desktop work, and override the stupid low toner check.

So I'm satisfied, but things could be better.

We got one over a year ago and it's been nothing but a dumb appliance for us - it just works.

The industry has made us accept a lot of sub-par configurations, and we need to stop this.

1. no more wifi. If you like it, put a cable on it. ACLs get simpler and spooky radio issues become a distant, comical memory.

2. Whether it's PDF or something better, find the body pushing for a common format and give them eyeballs and money. Make printers interchangeable again.