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I my old printer died (low usage so the ink jets clogged - Brother). I bought an HP Officejet since HP claimed that in worked with RedHat 6 (I run Centos 6 which is the same thing). The only support available have admitted a ''something wrong going on in the code'' and and go quiet when I asked when they would fix it a week ago.

In a couple of days time I will return it to where I bought it and buy something from a different manufacturer.

I hope that they will provide better drivers that do what they claim for this 3D printer.

Ah, thanks for that. It really is a pity, even more so that they go to such great lengths to hide it. Digging around a bit more from your example I found this page which explains in detail which printers require the binary plug-in and what functions it's used for.

Sadly, most of HP's new printers don't print unless you install their non-free driver. This includes their laterjet printers.

HP used to be the most reliable for free software drivers, but not anymore.

Do you have more info on this? Last time I was in the market (which was a couple years ago), HP had far and away the best free driver support. They contribute them upstream instead of making you download separate files and try to install them, and everything "just worked". My multi-function laserjet prints, scans, and duplexes, all over the network, with zero configuration or bother from me.

They have an entire website dedicated to their efforts to support open source, their list of supported printers has any recent printer I can find, and their most recent release notes indicate they're still adding features, printers, and supported distros (notably Ubuntu 13.10 Beta and OpenSuse 13.1 Beta).

They do have a list of printers which are are unsupported due to IP issues but those still seem to be far and away the exception, not the rule.

Sadly, most of HP's new printers don't print unless you install their non-free driver. This includes their laterjet printers.

HP used to be the most reliable for free software drivers, but not anymore.

Do you have more info on this? Last time I was in the market (which was a couple years ago), HP had far and away the best free driver support. They contribute them upstream instead of making you download separate files and try to install them, and everything "just worked". My multi-function laserjet prints, scans, and duplexes, all over the network, with zero configuration or bother from me.

They have an entire website dedicated to their efforts to support open source, their list of supported printers has any recent printer I can find, and their most recent release notes indicate they're still adding features, printers, and supported distros (notably Ubuntu 13.10 Beta and OpenSuse 13.1 Beta).

They do have a list of printers which are are unsupported due to IP issues but those still seem to be far and away the exception, not the rule.

Sadly, most of HP's new printers don't print unless you install their non-free driver. This includes their laterjet printers.

HP used to be the most reliable for free software drivers, but not anymore.

Do you have more info on this? Last time I was in the market (which was a couple years ago), HP had far and away the best free driver support. They contribute them upstream instead of making you download separate files and try to install them, and everything "just worked". My multi-function laserjet prints, scans, and duplexes, all over the network, with zero configuration or bother from me.

They have an entire website dedicated to their efforts to support open source, their list of supported printers has any recent printer I can find, and their most recent release notes indicate they're still adding features, printers, and supported distros (notably Ubuntu 13.10 Beta and OpenSuse 13.1 Beta).

They do have a list of printers which are are unsupported due to IP issues but those still seem to be far and away the exception, not the rule.

Sadly, most of HP's new printers don't print unless you install their non-free driver. This includes their laterjet printers.

HP used to be the most reliable for free software drivers, but not anymore.

Do you have more info on this? Last time I was in the market (which was a couple years ago), HP had far and away the best free driver support. They contribute them upstream instead of making you download separate files and try to install them, and everything "just worked". My multi-function laserjet prints, scans, and duplexes, all over the network, with zero configuration or bother from me.

They have an entire website dedicated to their efforts to support open source, their list of supported printers has any recent printer I can find, and their most recent release notes indicate they're still adding features, printers, and supported distros (notably Ubuntu 13.10 Beta and OpenSuse 13.1 Beta).

They do have a list of printers which are are unsupported due to IP issues but those still seem to be far and away the exception, not the rule.

HP seems to say it follows industry norms. (HP-GL/2, HP-RTL, TIFF, JPEG, CALS G4, HP PCL 3 GUI)

They have a list of supported linuxes: http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/models/designjet/hp_designjet_t790ps_44in.html
They even provide source code for a compatible driver: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/hplip/hplip-3.11.10.tar.gz

I've never personally played with it. But it seems to do fine for generic print. That being said it is "plug and play" so it is doing all sorts of stuff a printer shouldn't. Turn that crap off.

The OS is needed because the printer supports direct print from USB drives.

Yes I've made the mistake of these sorts of heavy drivers, never again.

You get the best information from HP's Linux site: https://launchpad.net/hplip and http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/ and find out what the rasorization engine is. From there get a generic one for Windows. Of course if the printer can do anything on its own just use a generic driver, Window's drivers are also annoyingly complex. I general would go up from the 1000 series to not have host based printing if you are going to use Windows.

So are fan-run Windows forums.

The Ubuntu Forums are ran/owned by Canonical

Or are you referring to users of Windows XP who haven't created a limited user account?

You didn't know there's still a large number of XP users out there?

But not all PCs will survive this conversion, as many have incompatible hardware.

That's what live distros are for, testing.

Case in point: an eight-year-old Microtek ScanMaker 4850 USB flatbed scanner was listed as unsupported when I checked SANE's web site earlier this month.

You should also just try it anyway...sometimes the documentation is not updated often.

I went to an electronics store, and none of the inkjet printers had a penguin logo on the box or had a column in system requirements for Linux. Not even the HP products.

I know you've got Aspergers, but you are WAY too literal minded. Just because something doesn't mention Linux support, doesn't mean it doesn't work.

Case in point, are the HP printers, which work fine, and have done so for years. my first Linux distro back in 2002 worked fine with the HP printers I had, and it was a modified Red Hat 6 on the PS2 no less. HP itself releases software for it's printers for Linux, ever hear of HPLIP?

http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/index.html

Another example is this Bluetooth dongle, which works just fine in Linux even though the neither the package or documentation mentions LInux:

http://www.walmart.com/ip/IoGear-Bluetooth-2.0-USB-Micro-Adapter/10299060?sourceid=1500000000000003142050&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=10299060

The driver situation has gotten much worse over the years. It used to be the case the HP Printer == PCL. Now they sell lots of "WinPrinters" that follow no particular standard.

...all but the very oldest of which are supported by HPLIP, along with the printers that do support PCL and/or PostScript. On my desk at work, I have a LaserJet 1020 (host-based) and a Photosmart C4480 (unknown). At home, I have a LaserJet 1320 (PCL and PostScript), a DeskJet 450 (PCL), and a Photosmart 3210 (unknown). All of them are fully functional under Linux. At this point, some of them may even be more functional under Linux than Windows (on Windows 7, the DeskJet 450 is supported only through a Microsoft-supplied driver which is probably less functional than the HP-supplied driver that works with earlier Windows versions).

I've been happy using my old HP OfficeJet printers under Ubuntu with HPLIP. It is nice to see a mainstream vendor actually support their hardware under Linux. I had thinking of ditching HP for Canon until this. I've been using it more for bulk scanning with the automatic document feeder that industrial printing, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

-

HP Linux Imaging and Printing
Print, Scan and Fax Drivers for Linux
http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/index.html

My wife and my son shop at WalMart. No, they don't spend 200 bucks on printers. There is a printer sitting in my kitchen which is connected to a Ubuntu machine. Let me pick my dead arse up, and see what brand it is - be right back.

HP Deskjet f4325 $45 at Walmart http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=10710285

I'm pretty sure that the printer was plug and play because they brought it in the house, and within an hour, it was connected, and running. We'll assume that the kid did his homework before going to the store with his mother, and he KNEW that it would work. A quick google for HP Linux drivers takes me to http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=bpu00658&cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&product=3571316 where I click another link http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/index.html

Oh, looky, I spent less than 5 minutes duplicating my son's work!!

I would assume that having spent several hours, or perhaps a week or two, developing that dream machine, you would have already identified those printers that will work with your machine. Further, I would assume that you informed YOUR customer of your findings, so that he wouldn't waste time and money on a printer that will not work. Actually, I would assume that you ASKED THE CUSTOMER if he wanted to use a printer, and offered to SELL HIM a compatible printer, thereby saving him a trip to Walmart.

Sorry, your argument carries no weight. Just 'fess up that you are incapable of designing a "dream machine", and you are further incapable of supporting that dream machine.

Apparently, my son could do it. I'll have to consider putting him into business.......

>I could say exactly the same thing about Vista. It detects my older Canon printer out of the box, like Ubuntu. But unlike Ubuntu, the drivers are fully featured (eg. they can show ink levels, initiate manual head cleaning, etc).

>Seriously, this bullshit about underestimating Windows has got to fucking stop by the Linux crowd. Makes them look uneducated.

If, as they do for Windows, the printer OEM takes on the task of supporting Linux, then the drivers are fully featured (eg. they can show ink levels, initiate manual head cleaning, etc).

http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/index.html

However, if, like Cannon, they ignore the task of supporting Linux, then Linux printing is still very likely to work, but it may not be absolutely full-featured for some models of printer.

IF, in contrast, OEMs were to ignore the task of writing dirivers for Windows ... then you end up like Vista where the hardware doesn't work at all.

Microsoft are begging OEMs for that to not be repeated for Windows 7 ... anything rather than having to write their own hardware drivers from specifications for their OS.

Seriously, this bullshit about underestimating Linux has got to stop by the Windows crowd. Makes them look uneducated, ignorant and/or astroturfers.