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Get an Epson

• Posted by Rodney Gedda on April 3rd, 2006 filed in Day-to-day, IT Management, Linux, Open Source
• 3 Comments »

Recent printer experiences have forced me to blog away on the topic.

After many frustrating hours trying to my HP multifunction device to work with Linux last week, I finally gave up and dusted off my old Epson Stylus Colour 670, plugged it in and started printing. The installation took about 30 seconds.

So much for HP’s ‘support‘ for Linux printing. Sure it’s great to see HP actually care enough about getting its hardware to work under Linux – to the extent of writing a driver front-end – but what’s the point if the driver’s themselves don’t work? It’s a PSC 2210 multifunction device and all FOUR drivers for it failed to produce anything.

On the other hand the trusty old Epson works perfectly. So I strongly recommend getting an Epson printer if you’re a Linux user. Surely market forces are beginning to mean something nowadays? From memory I also got an Epson USB scanner to work well with Linux about five years ago. I can only hope that today’s modern Epson hardware lives up to its ancestors’ compatibility. Well, at least there are a lot more perfectlys than paperweights

You’ll pay a bit more for an Epson but in addition to it working with Linux they are, in my experience anyway, good, solid machines that last a long time too.

Rodney

[Disclaimer: I don't work for Epson, don't write about Epson, don't have anything to do with Epson, don't think I will ever have anything to do with Epson (do they even have local PR?), I just want a bloody printer that works with Linux]