At Mon, 16 Aug 2010 14:50:32 -0400 CentOS mailing list <centos@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Sending my son back to college with a dual-boot laptop with Win 7 and
> CentOS 5.5. He uses Win7 to manage his iPod and SW that sometimes
> issued by a professor for a specific course...otherwise he uses CentOS
> for everything else. That setup worked well last year, except for
> printing. He has a low-end Cannon printer that is not supported in the
> Linux realm.
>
> Most of his coursework was uploaded to "Blackboard" and rarely did he
> have to print anything. On the rare occasion when he had to print a
> paper/briefing, his work-around was to build the paper/briefing in OO,
> save in Office 2003 format on a USB drive, boot to Win7, load in MS
> Office and print to the Cannon printer. I'm looking to clean that mess
> up for him before sending him back to school.
>
> Looking to buy an inexpensive printer he can use on both sides of this
> laptop. Any suggestions?
Almost any *new* *inket* printer is going to be a hassle to get working
under CentOS. HPs are actually the worst -- HP has some anal business
of hardwiring in model numbers in the driver (or some such nonsense),
even when a new model uses the same driver protocols as an older model,
so you need a 'new' driver, even when the old driver would otherwise
work. Yes, the driver is open source, but the pre-built binaries use
bleeding edge system libraries and the sources are a bear to build and
install from source (and will of course screw with yum & rpm).
Now, B&W *PostScript* *Laser* printers are universal. (And don't in fact
need a 'driver' at all under Linux). Over the long haul, Laser printers
are actually *cheaper* to use than even the cheapest Inkjet. Really.
The only downside is Laser printers are somewhat bulker that low-end
inkjets.
*I'd* suggest getting the $250 Brother model I got, HL-5370DW, I just
plugged it in, configured dhcpd, and spent two minutes with CUPS, and
was printing away (CentOS 5). (This model also has USB and parallel
port interfaces, but you'll need to get a cable.) I also suspect that
the toner cart it comes will will last the whole shool year, maybe even
for the rest of your son's college years. (Unlike the inkjet carts which
will probably need replacing after 2-3 long term papers.)
>
> Dave M
>
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