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·
    1 month ago

    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·
    1 month ago

    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·
    1 month ago

    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·
    1 month ago

    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 my 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·
    1 month ago

    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·
    1 month ago

    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.

  • The Doctor@beehaw.orgEnglish
    8·
    1 month ago

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

  • papafoss@lemmy.world
    8·
    1 month ago

    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·
    1 month ago

    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.

  • Oisteink@lemmy.world
    8·
    1 month ago

    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

  • utopiah@lemmy.ml
    7·
    1 month ago

    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·
      1 month ago

      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·
        1 month ago

        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.

  • mumei@lemmy.world
    6·
    1 month ago

    I have a HP printer and printing is never a smooth process. No idea why, but it takes me 5/10 minutes each time

    • Sparky@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      4·
      1 month ago

      From my experience I’ve had to deal with their software adware for which I’ve had to close pop ups and upsell ads before I could do anything with their printers, so that might be why it takes long to print a simple page

      • mumei@lemmy.world
        2·
        1 month ago

        My issue lies elsewhere, it takes me that long to have the printer recognized by the OS, then by CUPS browser, then I send the printing job and… it just stalls, never prints. I then cycle the USB ports and start all over again until it miraculously prints

    • space_of_eights@lemmy.mlNederlands
      2·
      1 month ago

      I have the exact opposite experience. It always prints and although it only prints about 6 pages per minute, it starts immediately. However, I have an old-ish HP laser printer without the crappy adware.

      My next printer will not be a HP for that reason.

  • Unmapped@lemmy.ml
    6·
    1 month ago

    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.