So ... the new multi-function is here. This time from Canon, a MF-4890dw. Double-sided printing works like a charm, fast. Double-sided scan works also very well. The machine feels sturdier than the Brother. The muffled gray tones of the Brother blended in much nicer than the loud black &white of the much taller Canon but, oh well.
The software/firmware is a bit clumsy. Before scanning one has to go to the printer, switch to scan mode and then select remote in a menu. Else a scan command from the computer will error. Afterwards one must not forget to switch it back. The Brother did all that automatically. Maybe Canon is concerned about people's health and wants to get them off their keister occasionally. Also, the highest resolution that can be set is
300dpi while the specs say that it can do a lot more. Weird, but I'll figure this out some day. For my usual work such as scanning legal docs it's sufficient.Kudos to Brother for a clean uninstall. One click and ... poof ... driver and program was removed.
Oh, and I can't drag a copy of the Canon scan program to the Quicklaunch bar. That's not so nice, the Brother software did that automatically. This is one of the few kinds of software that should be in the Quicklaunch.