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On Wed, 2008-12-03 at 19:44 -0800, Mark Knecht wrote: |
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> Does anyone have a good way of figuring out what printers that you can |
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> actually buy in the retail market place actually have support in |
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> Linux? I sure don't. |
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My first Linux printer was a *used* Apple LaserWriter (with serial |
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port). I knew it worked with Linux because it had built-in PostScript |
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and they guy I bought it from actually used it on his Sun workstation. |
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It weighed 600 lbs and printed 0.25 pages per minute but the output was |
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awesome! |
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My second Linux printer was a Lexmark LED printer. I knew it was |
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Linux-compatible because it actually came with a CD that had Linux |
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drivers on it. It was relatively inexpensive although the cartridges |
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weren't. |
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My third Linux printer was a Canon ink jet. It would be my first and |
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last ink jet printer. I bought it because it was cheap, color and |
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worked with Linux. Big mistake. I rarely print out color and the color |
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jets dried out and were unusable. Tossed it. |
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My fourth (current) printer is a Ricoh color laser. It was not cheap |
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though. I knew it worked with Linux because it has built-in PostScript |
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*and* PDF, supports ipp, LPD, etc. and it's built-in OS is actually |
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based on FreeBSD. It also comes with PPD files on CD. Although the |
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printer itself wasn't cheap, the cartridges are actually not bad. |
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My suggestion would be not go go cheap. Nowadays you can get a color |
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laser w/ built-in PostScript for around $400. The output is fast and |
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great (compared to ink jets) and It Just Works [tm] with Linux. I'd |
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rather spend the extra money and be happy with my choice, but that's |
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just me. |
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-a |
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