I’ve noticed a general sentiment that printing on Linux is (or at least was) extremely cumbersome and difficult. Why is that?

  • rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    I’m hooked on my brother with a wifi print server now. All three major OS in our house, I just make sure the printer stays updated. Not sure how to print photos, though.

    • InverseParallax@lemmy.worldEnglish
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      2 months ago

      Brother is amazing, only printer I’ve ever used that was automatically detected by every device including freebsd.

  • Magister@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I had a Samsung colour laser printer, they provided driver for linux, I installed them, everything works, full support for settings etc

  • mumei@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I have a HP printer and printing is never a smooth process. No idea why, but it takes me 5/10 minutes each time

    • object [Object]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 months ago

      From my experience I’ve had to deal with their software adware for which I’ve had to close pop ups and upsell ads before I could do anything with their printers, so that might be why it takes long to print a simple page

      • mumei@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        My issue lies elsewhere, it takes me that long to have the printer recognized by the OS, then by CUPS browser, then I send the printing job and… it just stalls, never prints. I then cycle the USB ports and start all over again until it miraculously prints

    • space_of_eights@lemmy.mlNederlands
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      2 months ago

      I have the exact opposite experience. It always prints and although it only prints about 6 pages per minute, it starts immediately. However, I have an old-ish HP laser printer without the crappy adware.

      My next printer will not be a HP for that reason.

  • RmDebArc_5@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
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    2 months ago

    Printing has basically everywhere been annoying. You need(-ed) specific drivers or even apps to make it work and if you have that set up it still can be annoying. And because most of these drivers/apps don’t support Linux printing relied on reverse engineered drivers. Then CUPS came around which made things better. And when apple adopted CUPS for Mac suddenly everyone wanted to support.

    If you are really interested check out this episode of destination Linux where it’s discussed in detail.

  • Apalacrypto@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I’m not sure on this one, but it may depend on the printer. Printing on Linux for me has been the easiest process ever. Windows fights me at every corner, but Linux sees my network printers and they just work out of the box. (I’ve only used Brother printers for the last 20 years)

  • Baaahb@feddit.nlEnglish
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    2 months ago

    That’s not been my experience.

    Granted, printers suuuuuck. But I was legit surprised when both the printing and scanning functions in Linux were hands down better than windows.

  • lurch (he/him)@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
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    2 months ago

    when you buy a printer, just look that it says it’s for linux, just like you would for windows or osx. people just sometimes run into problems when they retrofit printers for other OSes to work with linux. there’s a good chance a windows printer can work with linux, but it’s not guaranteed, so do it only, if you got one for free or it originally had been bought for another PC.

    • gigachad@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      Interesting, I have no problems with a Pixma TS8350. Printing is working as shitty as it has always been on Windows. I have yet to configure the scanner to be fair.

      • Greyghoster@aussie.zone
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        2 months ago

        The Canon driver needs to be installed on Fedora and has never worked out of the box without some tweaking. Canon is not really in the Linux support game.

        • gigachad@sh.itjust.works
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          2 months ago

          Ii admit it didn’t work out of the box on Mint as well, but didn’t take more then 10 minutes of tweaking. But yes, I would not call it “Linux-friendly”.

  • SlippiHUD@lemmy.worldEnglish
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    2 months ago

    Any problem I’ve ever had printing is almost exclusively a problem with the printer, it’s usually yellow or cyan. Doesn’t matter the document is black&white.

  • Björn Tantau@swg-empire.de
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    2 months ago

    That’s not my experience. Bought a new Brother MFC the other day. Hooked it up to the Wifi. All Linux machines in the house can automatically print and scan without any additional setup needed.

    • d0ntpan1c@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 months ago

      Brother, in particular, has always been fairly well supported via Linux fortunately. Especially great since their laser printers have been the best cost/value for home use for a long time.

  • papafoss@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I only print docs and pictures. But in my opinion printing on Linux is largely better than Windows. It just works most of the time. And if there is an issue the solution is generally restarting the job.

  • gomp@lemmy.ml
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    2 months ago

    It used to back in the day, especially if you tried using shitty windows usb inkjets.

    Nowadays basically all printers are network printers (they are, aren’t they?) plus we have cups which is the same thing macos uses (so manufacturers actually care).