this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2023
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Yeah, anybody who says Linux is easy to use has never spent four hours troubleshooting a printer driver, only to discover that the open source driver doesn’t actually support your specific model of printer and you’re going to be forced to boot into Windows to print anything.
Cross-compatibility is improving, but the “Linux is easy” crowd is really just overcompensating for how unintuitive it actually is. The problem with telling everyone “it’s easy” to get them to try it is that if it’s not easy then people immediately give up and go back to Windows as soon as they can’t figure something out. It’s falsely representing the reality of the situation, which is only self-sabotaging in the long term because it means fewer people will be willing to adopt and actually stick with it.
Being that all printers are evil incarnate, that's not a good example. You're right on getting some things to work in Linux (although newer versions are much better than they used to be), but printers in Windows can be a nightmare too. The only two printers I never had issues with - an Okidata dot matrix printer for my C-64, and a HP 5P laser that I used with Win98 (remember when popping in a Win98 CD for drivers would fix almost everything?)
Obviously I disagree with your main point, but, considering I have been a Linux only user (in my personal life) for over a decade, it's only natural that I would consider it easy to use and intuitive, as such, I won't even try to argue against that assertion.
With that said, if you want to make a point against something just working, you may want to choose something other than printers as evidence of how bad Linux is. Printers are universally terrible on every OS.
Anecdotally, I have had far fewer issues with printers on Linux than I have had with printers on Windows. But, most of the "tech support" I do for printers is from people who are arguably tech illiterate and using Windows. So, I'd again consider that a wash that doesn't really add weight to either side of the argument.
tl;dr: printers are universally terrible and we should all stop using them anyway
I help organizing events a few times a year. The administration needs a working printer hooked up to a laptop at each event. For more than a decade now, setting up the printer to work with a Windows laptop has always taken at least an hour, sometimes 2 or 3.
Yeah, printers are a pain. That's as true on Linux as it is on Windows. I sometimes think that printer drivers are designed specifically to screw with customers on all OSes.
EDIT: Oh, forgot to mention the most "fun" part, when the printer mysteriously malfunctions mid event and needs to be urgently trouble-shooted.
Get a laser printer. Cheaper, more reliable, and they don’t have all the built in BS that laser printers have. A big reason so many Windows users have issues is because of the intentional DRM sabotage by the printer manufacturer, to make sure you’re only using approved ink cartridges. But toner is cheap and easy, and the printer manufacturers don’t bother trying to block users from printing.
But that same DRM sabotage is why Linux has so many issues with printers. And it’s also working from the disadvantage of having to reverse engineer the official drivers to figure out how they work, so they can then be ported over to Linux.
Just make sure you keep the laser printer away from areas that you occupy regularly/while you use it. They offgas small amounts of ozone, which is toxic. Not to mention that breathing in the toner is pretty terrible too.
Unfortunately, I'm not in a position to do anything about it. The organizers show up with a random laptop and a random printer, and I've just gotta make 'em talk to each other somehow.
I don't know what printer you have, but I've had the exact opposite experience. I don't remember how I eventually got it working, but printing on windows was a lot more effort than transferring the files to mac or linux, which just worked out of the box.
It's been like that for some other miscellaneous devices like a playstation 3 controller and this old usb floppy drive I once needed.