Hi All, I hope this is appropriate as this is my first post.
I have multiple Mac products in my home, used for a variety of home and business purposes. I’m about to start my experiment with migrating at least two of these to Linux, and am also seeking to replace my aged all in one Color HP LaserJet. I commonly see printers advertised with Windows and MacOS compatibility recommendations but I don’t recall ever seeing recommendations for use with Linux. My question is therefore two-fold.
Are there any pitfalls with connecting certain printers to Linux, especially with regards to wireless printing?
Does anyone here have recommendations for a printer with the following features?
Hello Jeff and welcome to the forums!
It would appear that I will answer both your questions in one go. I have a great experience with printers in Linux when it comes to the Brother brand. They have full Linux support, they are fast, with 2-sided-printing and the scanner works nicely.
I have one and it works like a charm. I also noticed that HP printers (and scanners) work really nicely too once you install their drivers. I have one also, but it’s an Inkjet. However, the drivers work for all models.
Thank you both! I was considering the Brother already so I’ll for sure take a closer look. I have a Brother label printer too so it’s reassuring to know that have support on that front as well.
Being totally new to this platform I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t either buying myself a complete headache or an ornament!
I’ve just begun ‘the journey’ with my old 2009 unibody MacBook (pre MacBook Pro), so despite initially encouraging results from my initial hardware maintenance, I’m sure I’ll be good comedy value over the next few weeks!
I’ve tried epson scanner and printer working flawless in linux (in fact the scanner driver is pretty advanced with black and white point, better than official driver)
And make some tests with your actual HP LaserJet. Maybe it is still good to go
I have not used Linux with a printer since about 2006. But even then I never had issues installing and using desktop printers. HP inkjet and Epson inkjet printers worked just fine.
The only issue I had was with a large multi-function copier, collator, folder and stapler. I could get the printing to work, but not the other features. Can’t recall the brand. Now, at the time, there was technology work all that out. It was over my head and then the job ended. I was able to use the printer from Windows in the Virtual Box.
I would expect 15 years later that there is much more support for Linux even on complicated printers. Last night, I installed my Epson large format printer (44" wide) in Fedora. I did it over my home LAN. Was surprised how easy it was. Now, the Linux interface is not pretty! But it had all the feature functions. And it even had functions that were on the printer, and not in the Epson interface. I can even import my art paper color profiles. Very impressed.
Run Linux from a USB and install the printers. Test them out!
I have an old, ~$50 printer, years ago, HP Deskjet F2110 All-in-One printer I’m using on my Linux system (Zorin 16 currently), but have also used on many other distros. It picks it up with no problem. I suspect that likely applies to many HP printers and likely many other major printer companies. I hear that it used to be hard to find Linux drivers for hardware, but that’s greatly improved in recent years.
I like to go in on the deep end so went with a Brother MFC-L9570CDW which, apart from having such a complicated model number I have to look it up every time someone asks seems to be excellent. Installation wise, as far as the setup was concerned it was as close to plugging it in and turning it on as it can get in terms of software; that being said there were some hardware issues and it was rather like waking an animal from hibernation in that respect!
I’ve just got it after over a month wait (infamous supply chain issues), so I’ve yet to try it on a Linux installation but the operations with iOS and MacOS are so far flawless.
I’m using a Wi-Fi Epson XP410 INK jet with scan and copy capability. I have no issues with it on Ubuntu 20.04 from 4 machines and a 5th running Mate 20.04.
I know you were not inquiring about ink jet but that would be a moot point compared to interactivity between Linux and the printers.
Epson does activity work on Linux integration with cups, bsd printing etc, and in all fairness does provide a quality printer though I have no direct experience with their non-ink jet printers.
I can say that I used a Lexmark monochrome laser printer years ago with Caldera Linux and cups quite successfully though it was during the time of flatbed scanners which also worked.
Linux and the huge community that diligent works to integrate support for modern hardware tirelessly put in the effort to get equipment to work, I’m sure someone out there has tried equipment that you’d be looking at.