I’ve noticed a general sentiment that printing on Linux is (or at least was) extremely cumbersome and difficult. Why is that?

  • Baaahb@feddit.nlEnglish
    85·
    3 个月前

    That’s not been my experience.

    Granted, printers suuuuuck. But I was legit surprised when both the printing and scanning functions in Linux were hands down better than windows.

  • SlippiHUD@lemmy.worldEnglish
    20·
    3 个月前

    Any problem I’ve ever had printing is almost exclusively a problem with the printer, it’s usually yellow or cyan. Doesn’t matter the document is black&white.

  • gomp@lemmy.ml
    15·
    3 个月前

    It used to back in the day, especially if you tried using shitty windows usb inkjets.

    Nowadays basically all printers are network printers (they are, aren’t they?) plus we have cups which is the same thing macos uses (so manufacturers actually care).

  • Apalacrypto@lemmy.world
    14·
    3 个月前

    I’m not sure on this one, but it may depend on the printer. Printing on Linux for me has been the easiest process ever. Windows fights me at every corner, but Linux sees me network printers and they just work out of the box. (I’ve only used Brother printers for the last 20 years)

  • RmDebArc_5@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    12·
    3 个月前

    Printing has basically everywhere been annoying. You need(-ed) specific drivers or even apps to make it work and if you have that set up it still can be annoying. And because most of these drivers/apps don’t support Linux printing relied on reverse engineered drivers. Then CUPS came around which made things better. And when apple adopted CUPS for Mac suddenly everyone wanted to support.

    If you are really interested check out this episode of destination Linux where it’s discussed in detail.

  • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
    101·
    3 个月前

    IDK, my housemates printer required literally 0 setup to work with my linux VM and I’ve never had an issue. When I print from windows it’s a pain in the butt sometimes.

  • Oisteink@lemmy.world
    8·
    3 个月前

    Printing is a bitch no matter the platform and its usually the producers of the printers that fail. Everyone wants to make their own standard or interpret any standard in their own way. Duplex settings? Sometimes easy to find, and sometimes called something else and put in a weird spot of the interface.

    Basic printing to usb is fine on Linux. My pi zero hooked to a brother laser has been providing wifi printing for me for the last 5 years. Installed cups and connected the usb and it was rocking

  • The Doctor@beehaw.orgEnglish
    8·
    3 个月前

    It was terrible in the 90’s. Since CUPS became standard around 2000 it’s significantly easier.

  • papafoss@lemmy.world
    8·
    3 个月前

    I only print docs and pictures. But in my opinion printing on Linux is largely better than Windows. It just works most of the time. And if there is an issue the solution is generally restarting the job.

  • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
    91·
    3 个月前

    I think that used to be the case more than it is now. Linux now uses the same printing system (CUPS) as macOS, and macOS printing has to work or Apple’s customers would be unsatisfied.

  • utopiah@lemmy.ml
    7·
    3 个月前

    HP Laser 107w, driverless, over LAN.

    I just Ctrl+P from any software and it prints.

    It also prints programmatically (for e.g. folk.computer ) thanks to IPP.

    I didn’t have to “think about printing” since I have that setup so I don’t know where you get that sentiment.

    • lemmyvore@feddit.nlEnglish
      1·
      3 个月前

      Linux printing is very complex. Before Foomatic came along you got to experience it in all it’s glory and setting up a working printing chain was a pain. The Foomatic Wikipedia page has a diagram that will make your head spin.

      • utopiah@lemmy.ml
        1·
        3 个月前

        No doubt, the kernel itself is also quite complex… but my comment here is on the user experience perspective, namely, for me at least “it just works”. So I’m not trying to imply it will work for anybody flawlessly nor that it’s due to the simplicity of the stack, solely that it works, for me.

  • Unmapped@lemmy.ml
    6·
    3 个月前

    I noticed this too. In theprimeagens recent video on cups problem they kept making jokes about printing on Unix. I think I must be lucky or something cause so far every printer I have setup on Linux has been easier then having to download all the bloatware to make them work on windows. But I have only done about 6 printers so far on Linux.