I'm looking to finally cut the last strand that keeps windows on my hard drive.  I currently have a brother mfc-210c printer.  I'm looking to replace it with a cheap openbsd/lpr friendly solution.  Although the mfc is a multifunction printer, that is not a requirement for the new printer.  It has finally sunk in how sad it is to have to keep windows just to print, it's also a pain in the ass to have to reboot every time I want to print.  Any suggestions would be awesome, thanks.

LexMark C510 laser. Color, ethernet, postscript. $325 CDN 6 months ago
just works.

	I've had nothing but pain and aggravation with bullshit inkjets.

	-B

Was that new or used? And if you don't mind sharing where you bought it
then please do. I'm finding them, but for a lot more money.

-- 
Darrin Chandler                   |  Phoenix BSD Users Group
dwchandler@stilyagin.com          |  http://bsd.phoenix.az.us/
http://www.stilyagin.com/darrin/  |

New, used, it doesn't matter

	Most of them have bullshit printer suport that you have to
install crazy ghostscript filters to print to them, or cups nonsense.
Bleah.

	Get something that groks postscript :)

	-Bob

Ok, I should have trimmed more. I was asking about the LexMark C510,
which I have only found for way more than the $325 you mentioned
($500-600). If you know of a cheap source then please share!

-- 
Darrin Chandler                   |  Phoenix BSD Users Group
dwchandler@stilyagin.com          |  http://bsd.phoenix.az.us/
http://www.stilyagin.com/darrin/  |

Although this seems like a great printer, my biggest limitation is price.  We
have a university property disposition near me, which I'm going to go check out
later today.  My friend has gotten a couple sun sparc stations from them for
under $20 bucks.  I'm hoping they will have some cheap laser printers.  Thanks
for your recommendation.

A used small-office laser is probably a better bet, but if you want 
cheap there's always the Dell 1110 
(http://openprinting.org/show_printer.cgi?recnum=Dell-1100_Laser_Printer) 
and from what I see it looks like it should work with some configuration.

Of course, Bob's right, getting a Postscript printer (or even PCL) is 
the way to go.  I got a Dell 3100CN for ~$US260 shipped a while back, so 
keep your eyes peeled.  It'll be a long time before I need another printer.

Then your labor must be free.  I'm sure Bob speaks from experience.  You 
get a printer that "just works" then you can do something else with your 
time besides trying to tweak this and that.

I picked up a refurb'd Dell network laser printer off of eBay last year 
for a little over US$100.

g.day

Printers are the bane of my existance.  However, I have had wonderful
experiences with the HP LJ 4m.  Ancient, power-hungr, loud.  Yet
it works beautifly with postscript via serial, parallel, or over
the network (you can just do cat blah.ps | nc printer some-port-i-forget.
Nmap it to find out.) The guys down at the surplus probably consider
it "worthless junk," so that should help with your price.

-- 
Travers Buda

Several years ago I got an old, used Xerox laser printer for really
cheap, with postscript and network interface, in a similar place.  For
printing term papers I'd highly recommend trying to find a used laser.

Greg

If you're going to a surplus auction from a university, any of the
older school hp lasrjet printers (4m+ 5m, etc. etc.) that do postscript
would be a good pick. heavy as all hell, and not good on power
(so you need to turn them off when you're not using it if you're
paying the power bill) but you can still get cartridge refills easy
for them.  You may need to be a bit clever and take some oil of wintergreen
to the rubber pickup rollers if they're old and slick. 

	A postscript ethernet capable laserjet would work well. 
your biggest risk there is you get one with a crappy cartridge or 
drum, meaning you'd need to shell out another hundred bucks or so
to make it work, which can turn your $20 printer into $170 printer
pretty quick. 

	Do your homework and find somethign that speaks postscript.

	-Bob

Alright, well the disposition didn't have any cheap laser printers but I did
find a HP DeskJet 810C for $15.  I know you guys said stay away from inkjet
printers, but the price was right and the hpijs driver says it supports it.
It's connected via usb.  I installed hpijs along with all it's dependencies.  I
then edited /etc/printcap with:
lp|DeskJet:\
  :lp=/dev/ulpt0:\
  :af=/usr/local/share/ppd/HP/HP-DeskJEt_810C-hpijs.ppd.gz:\
  :if=/usr/local/bin/foomatic-rip:\
  :sd=/var/spool/output:\
  :sh

After starting lpd, I then tried to print with lpr, "lpr /etc/printcap".  The
printer starts up and begins to print, but then the paper light comes on and
after pressing it, a blank sheet comes out.  Anybody have any thoughts?  Is my
printcap wrong?  Thanks.

Alright, I was able to get the printer to print using the apsfilter.  Works
awesome!  Now to buy some ink and remove all traces of windows from my hard
drive.  Thanks again everyone!

That sounds like a nice one.  Unfortunately I don't think the OP is
going to find anything with ps for under his target price of $50.  Oh
well.

Greg

You didn't mention ink or laser but my Brother HL-5250DN works GREAT
for the price.

Greg

Ink is fine, I'm just looking for something to print my term papers.  I prefer a price tag under $50.