[cups] Brother MFC-L8850CDW

[Brian Potkin]

On Thu 24 Mar 2016 at 21:35:17 +0100, Peter Gantt wrote:

> Thanks for the (depressing) info Ruben.

Hope you get over or come to terms with this. The Brother website makes
clear what it is offering. It is depressing that reading it appears to
come bottom of a user's list.
 
> Ruben wrote:
> 
> > You cannot just use the ppd file. The .deb files include binary
> > blobs/executables (x86) and shell scripts
> > (brother_lpdwrapper_mfcl8850cdw) which are called by the ppd file.
> 
> Wow, nasty.  Horrific.

Not really. Brother decide what they will offer. You decide what you
accept. "Horrific" is a word which can be applied to many things in
this world. Binary blobs is not one of them.

> If I sacrifice a small print server to be infested with this shitware, can
> it then share the printer as a generic printer?

Yes. (Language, please. It is not appropriate and has no technical
meaning).

>                                                  Or will every client
> require the proprietary goop?

No. 

>                                Whenever I've shared printers in the past,
> clients have required the driver for that particular model, rather than
> something generic.

Does anyone understand why that should be? Incompetence?

> > You'll have to install the whole .deb file, both of them. The cups thing
> > is only a wrapper around the lpd driver.
> 
> > I contacted Brother Belgium. They said they would love to provide free
> > drivers, but that Brother Japan imposes they cannot release source for
> > the lpd driver. The cups driver is GPL'd software iirc.
> 
> Idiots.  Hopefully this thread will warn others off the mistake of buying
> from these cowboys.

Disparaging so insultingly an enterprise who support Linux on many of
its products makes you feel better when you use the printer?