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Pretty much any $30 HP inkjet printer at Walmart seemed to work with Ubuntu, so I set it up for some elderly friends years ago. Much more stable than windows a

Pretty much any $30 HP inkjet printer at Walmart seemed to work with Ubuntu, so I set it up for some elderly friends years ago. Much more stable than windows and I was able to make the desktop icons and wallpaper look the same as they were used to on windows. No tech support calls either, everything just worked for them.

doubled112 2y ago
HP did have great drivers in the HPLIP package, which is ironic considering their Windows drivers are a total dumpster fire. I say did because I haven't used them in a while. It could still be true.
- SushiHippie 2y ago
  I have a relatively old (10+ years) HP Scanner (which is also a printer) for free that someone wanted to get rid of. It already has some online services integrated into it, which luckily don't work anymore as they've shut down the servers. On linux I can use `hpscan` from hplip which works very well, someone also wrote a server that allows you to use the 'scan to PC' functionality of most HP scanners. Printing also works flawlessly with CUPS. But on Windows... if I open the 'Scan' program and select the HP Scanner it redirects me to the Microsoft Store to download the 'HP Smart' program. And if you want to scan from there you'll need an HP Account (yes, an online account to use your own scanner).
  - oliwarner 2y ago
    What's better is no custom software at all. Our Brother DCP-L8410CDW (colour laser, scanner, mid-size) is "driverless" in CUPS. Blew my tiny little mind. No setup, just plumb it into the network and everything can just print to it, scan from it. I've had zero problems with it in 4 years and ~ten thousand pages. I've never experienced that with another printer. The obvious extra benefit is that Brother are generally —especially compared to HP— pretty decent about consumables.
    - SushiHippie 2y ago
      CUPS also works without custom software for the hp printer, but I think cups is only for printing and not for scanning?
      - oliwarner 2y ago
        It is. This Brother scanner works (on Linux) via the airscan/eSCL protocol, ingested by SANE. Hopefully these sorts of driverless, protocol driven peripherals become widespread. And to think, it's only taken 50 years of consumer printing to start to get there.
        doubled112 2y ago
        Apple’s AirPrint being more or less a combination of Bonjour/Avahi and driverless IPP is probably the best thing to happen to printing on Linux in recent times. Can’t hurt that they use CUPS too.

doubled112 2y ago

HP did have great drivers in the HPLIP package, which is ironic considering their Windows drivers are a total dumpster fire. I say did because I haven't used them in a while. It could still be true.

SushiHippie 2y ago
I have a relatively old (10+ years) HP Scanner (which is also a printer) for free that someone wanted to get rid of. It already has some online services integrated into it, which luckily don't work anymore as they've shut down the servers. On linux I can use `hpscan` from hplip which works very well, someone also wrote a server that allows you to use the 'scan to PC' functionality of most HP scanners. Printing also works flawlessly with CUPS. But on Windows... if I open the 'Scan' program and select the HP Scanner it redirects me to the Microsoft Store to download the 'HP Smart' program. And if you want to scan from there you'll need an HP Account (yes, an online account to use your own scanner).
- oliwarner 2y ago
  What's better is no custom software at all. Our Brother DCP-L8410CDW (colour laser, scanner, mid-size) is "driverless" in CUPS. Blew my tiny little mind. No setup, just plumb it into the network and everything can just print to it, scan from it. I've had zero problems with it in 4 years and ~ten thousand pages. I've never experienced that with another printer. The obvious extra benefit is that Brother are generally —especially compared to HP— pretty decent about consumables.
  - SushiHippie 2y ago
    CUPS also works without custom software for the hp printer, but I think cups is only for printing and not for scanning?
    - oliwarner 2y ago
      It is. This Brother scanner works (on Linux) via the airscan/eSCL protocol, ingested by SANE. Hopefully these sorts of driverless, protocol driven peripherals become widespread. And to think, it's only taken 50 years of consumer printing to start to get there.
      - doubled112 2y ago
        Apple’s AirPrint being more or less a combination of Bonjour/Avahi and driverless IPP is probably the best thing to happen to printing on Linux in recent times. Can’t hurt that they use CUPS too.