[buug] Color laser printer compatibility

[Michael Paoli]

Without details such as make and model, printer language(s)/protocol(s),
etc. it's rather difficult for folks to make much more than a guess as
to how compatible or not it may be on operating systems / distributions
not specifically stated as compatible.

That it works or is supported on several Linux distributions is at least
fairly encouraging, but without more information it's rather difficult
to know how well it may or may not work on other distributions - or
even those it's stated to work on.  E.g. if it depends upon binary blobs
from the manufacturer, that only work on Linux distributions for which
they produce that binary blob, and for which they release no source, one
might be looking at a printer that's mostly good for a boat anchor a few
years down the road.  Or it may be they release all the source, and
those they list as "supported" are just those they've created packages
for and tested their printer on, and provide at least some level of
"support" - may work perfectly fine on other distributions, ... just
may not have "support" (or any official support) from the manufacturer
for other operating systems / distributions.

references/excerpts:
http://catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html


Quoting "Pewter Bot" <pewterbot9 at gmail.com>:

> Per Rick Moen's sage advice to steer clear of *all* inkjet printers,
> and in need of acquiring a good quality color printer, I've started
> looking at the laser species. Delighted to see that I have a wide
> selection these days when I'm willing to spend up to $150. Prices sure
> have dropped compared to several years ago!
>
> Of course, I will do my homework re. Linux compatibility, consumer
> reviews, cartirdge expense, etc. But I now would like to pose the
> following question, regarding system requirements listed on eBay.
> Thusly:
>
> "Minimum system requirements: SuSE Linux 8.2, Red Hat Linux 9, Red Hat
> Fedora Core 1, Mandrake Linux 10.1 Discovery, SuSE Linux 9.2, Red Hat
> Fedora Core 3, Red Hat Linux 8.0." [I removed any Windoze and Mac
> listings, for brevity's sake.]
>
> Interesting that neither Debian nor Ubuntu were listed. Now, I would
> gladly dual-boot w/2 versions of Linux if need be. But wouldn't there
> be a rather simple workaround, in order to get the printer to work in
> Ubuntu? Or is this some proprietary arrangement that would not allow
> this? TIA.