Unfortunately, there really is no way to state it otherwise. It sucks. Not to be confused with “It doesnt’ work” because it most certainly does. It sucks because the level of effort required to make it work is rather high. For a newbie, printer problems are essentially a right-of-passage. The more experienced one becomes with Linux administration, the more annoying printer problems become.
I’m not sure if it’s because of all the moving parts that are required to make it work or if the design philosophy behind ‘nix systems just sold everyone short in the case of printing. Hell, it could be something else entirely. The fact remains that Microsoft, much as I’m loathe to admit it, does it better.
The only positive thing I can say is, at least with modern distros, it’s lightyears ahead of where it was when I first started dabbling in Linux. Back then I opted not to have a printer. Nowadays, at least I can setup a printer to work on the system. Getting it to work as a print server takes more effort. Much more. But I can do it. Back then, not so much.
Alright, whine done. Back to the CUPS, hplip, ppd salt mines.
One reply on “Linux Printing Sucks”
Keep working on a solution …. I hear that MS has a problem to resolve with WORD that must be done by Jan. 11th … maybe you have a hidden pot of gold ???!!!