^ that makes sense... my fone (galaxy-s2) which runs android(linux) has a print option (but only to samsung printers ).

"Selected models" is key. It means you can't buy any printer model you fancy from one of those companies and assume it has a proprietary Linux driver, as you can do with Windows. They give the printer a Linux driver if they feel like it. I think that's what I had in mind.

@newbiesforever

Er... not quite true. As I mentioned in post #14, HP produce a program, HPLIP, which provides Linux drivers to 2,345 (so they claim) of their printers. You just don't get it supplied on the CD as it's generally included in any Linux distribution anyway.

Windows and MacOS users expect to get drivers supplied on CD, Linux users don't. (We don't. Do we? No... can't believe it.)

Play Bonny!

Usually, the drivers that come on the CD are out of date anyways.

For me--what drivers on the CD? HP didn't provide a Linux driver at all for my particular printer, an HP Laserjet P1006. I had only the community-built driver (I think it was called foo2xqx), which didn't always work (for which the only solution within my limited expertise was to reinstall it). This was the only printer I've ever had since switching to Linux permanently, so I haven't experienced any any other conditions than having no driver support from the manufacturer.

@ newbiesforever

Like I said, check out HPLIP, is it installed on your Distro because if it is, your printer's covered already without having to install any drivers. See this list, the Laserjet P1006 is on it.

Even though it's an HP written application, (I've been told this by an HP account manager) I agree that they're not very good at advertising the fact that it's available and should state this on the box if the printer is compatible! You're going to be told "not compatible with Linux" in PC World and other high street stores.

C'mon HP! Get a grip! You're running a major Ad campaign in the UK just now, you should highlight the compatibility of your printers with Linux!

Play Bonny!

That was always one of HP's biggest failings, they would put out some good products then fail to market them and they would die.
I worked or a reseller in 1999 and went to HP's office in my city for one of their new product demo's. At the end they passed out an evaluation sheet to fill out. I walked up front to all the HP reps anf told them I forget to bring a pen so I pulled out my HP CapShare, scanned the eval, sent it via IR to my Jornada, filled out the eval with a photo editor then sent it to one of he demo printers. The whole time the hp sales reps were amazed that someone could do that even though they sold the products that did it.
But yes, they don't need to put drivers on a CD as HPLIP is in a lop of popular distros so HP printers just work out of the box.

2 members found this post helpful.

The Touchpad, Palm and WebOS spring to mind. I quite liked the WebOS operating system, (I've still got an old Pre 2) some pretty neat concepts in there.
Having been sold off, I believe it's now being used in LG smart TVs?

Play Bonny!

I always thought they bought palm for all the prior art to use against Apples patent trolls, I was hoping to see Apple get put in its place but it seems they never did anything.
WRT printing I've always been able to print to HP printers from Linux without downloading any drivers all the way back to my first DeskJet 600C. They have also always been pretty good about supporting various Linux distros for their servers both pre and post Compaq merger.

During my last 14 years with Linux, I've been using several printers, at home or at work. As said, HP printers seems to be the safe option about drivers (hplip); unfortunately I was not quite lucky as their mechanical endurance. Deskjet520 was my second inkjet printer (first one was an Olivetti), but some LaserJet (LJ4, LJ5, LJ5L...) werked well despite being prone to paper jams. Brother worked very well for me, either with free or proprietary drivers: HL1270N, HL1290, HL2130, HL2150, HL5440D, DCP-J140W and DCP-J315 are some models I remember now. Rugged laser printers, but not the best colours as inkjet. Lately, also Canon has good support: IP4000,MF4320D,MG3250 and MP270 are some models working also with free or proprietary drivers; the inkjet models giving better colour. Some models of Epson worked well also, but to a lesser extent.

Hope this helps.

The only problem I have had with HP printers is to have a newer model which is not compatible with an older version of hplip.

For instance, the current hplip version on Wheezy is not compatible with the HP Deskjet 3050A. Just downloading the latest version from hplip's site the problem is solved.

Thats not really an hp problem, thats a distro problem