Generally, I buy by brand since the model numbers change so much. Within brands, I try to find sources (such as Consumer Reports) that measure objective criteria such as cost-per-page and sharpness.
I have never gone wrong with Brother or HP.
HP support for Linux is more full-featured, especially if you can use an Internet connection rather than USB, but it occasionally contains closed-source bits for some cheaper models. Brother support is more vanilla but pretty solid.
I have heard from associates having success with Samsung printers under Linux but have no first hand experience.
On the other side are brands to avoid, that are indifferent at best to Linux and hostile at worst. These are Canon and Lexmark.