In my long and storied computer career, I've had three printers at home: a LaserJet so old that it wanted a serial cable, and two multifunction HP DeskJets. The LaserJet worked flawlessly until, for some reason, it didn't. The DeskJets both followed the same trajectory: they printed nicely, the very expensive ink cartridges dried out because I barely print, and the scanner mechanism broke, which, for some reason, broke the printing function. This was years ago and I've somehow managed to survive.
So after much thought, I decided on a laser printer, with scanning, fax, and copying. Laser cartridges don't dry out and they produce a lot of pages. I looked around and found relatively cheap color laser printers. The first color laser I saw at work, many years ago, was about $10,000. So I was a little shocked to find this little bugger in the neighborhood of $350. Since I remember what was involved with color lasers, it was a real mental tug of war between I WANT ONE and YOU'LL BE SORRY. The 'feature' that stopped the purchase was that it requires four cartridges (this is standard) at about $110 each, which is more than the cost of the printer itself (also standard with InkJets).
Since I had such a bad time with HP printers, there was no excuse not to get another one. Ok, let me back up.... when printers are released, they don't come with linux drivers. Windows and Mac - no problem. Linux... well... take your chances. The linux community got together and put together a resource on printers and whether or not they worked with linux. Unfortunately the linux community cannot travel into the future to say if a very new printer will work. So if you want a new model of printer, you have to wait til someone buys it and tries it, then posts the results. The ones I was looking at didn't have listings on the linux page yet.
HP may have questionable hardware, as displayed by my two dead multifunction printers, but they're incredibly smart. They released software called HPLIP or something like it, that will allow you to use their printers on linux. HP was also very fortunate, in that their software is so functional that it's included in several linux distributions, Ubuntu included.
My nephew said you go into Costco to buy some cereal and walk out, $350 dollars later, with a cart full of everything, including tires for your car. So I naturally started there (online). They had exactly one HP, which was the aforementioned color laser. Nope. Costco doesn't usually disappoint.
While I'm web-shopping, I noticed something... stores weren't listing small details, like price. Some had to be put in your 'cart' before the secret price would be revealed. Some were more complex and I give up easily. To prove my point, later that evening I did a search for a specific kind of juice, and that price wasn't listed either. Juice. What the hell is wrong with these people?
My next step is where I used to live when they first opened... I won't say their name, because for some reason other people don't, so I'll tell you it rhymes with Breast Guy. BOOM, the HP printers popped right up. It was weird - they had prices listed. Not available in stores, this unit was probably being blown out at $99, as it was up to double that on other sites. I did a compare of a few laser AIOs (all in one), as price was less a consideration than reliability and suitability. I print something every other month or so, which isn't really a category to compare by. It turned out that the least expensive printer would be just fine. It's an awful shame this isn't the case with guitar gear.
Although this shouldn't be anyone's sole criterion for purchase, I checked the reviews. People are most likely to review something if they have a complaint, especially if you've ever had the misfortune to read Yelp. I was surprised to find a lot of great reviews and a few bad reviews, all pretty much the same. People liked the printer or they had trouble and hated the wireless setup. Since I'm a big shot network guy<tm>, this wouldn't be a problem for me.
The transaction was quick and pleasant, unlike any other transaction I have had on the web. I kept waiting for the internet to crash, but it didn't. I got a tracking number and it showed up when they said it would.
For some reason, I really didn't want to set it up. Who gets a new toy and doesn't want to play with it? I'll tell you who... the person who has to set it up first. I only knew this subliminally. Dammit if the reviewers weren't right: even a big shot network guy<tm> couldn't make the wireless function work. It's not that it wasn't user-friendly, it was user-HOSTILE. It also refused to set anything up until there was paper in it. Am I crazy for thinking it shouldn't need paper to set the wireless feature up?
My wireless network is set up very securely. So securely I almost had to take it apart to get to it. I need very specific info before I can connect anything wirelessly. Naturally the information was not available for this little bugger. Going through the options on the face of the printer was an interesting feat. The directions were printed out in four languages, fortunately, in case I preferred to read them in French, Spanish, or Portuguese (I think). Looking closer, they basically gave a few quick steps, then referred to the User Guide, located at a web address. Just think of the money saved not printing a useful set of instructions. Just because you can get some backdoor software that works with linux doesn't mean there are any instructions for linux.
So I did what any short-tempered, ADD techie would do... I gave up and plugged the damn thing into my computer, with the INCLUDED usb cable. They used to charge you extra for them, causing many an unpleasant surprise when they opened the box after the stores closed. Linux recognized the printer and set it up. Yay! I told it to print a test page, which it promptly did. And by that I mean that it said it printed, but I checked the print queue and discovered it was sitting there, stopped, with no way to send it out for printing. I got all sorts of weird error messages, which I looked up, and discovered that people recommended reinstalling the HP software. I downloaded it and set it running, where it suggested removing the old software... yeah, ok. And it found the printer and bloody printed! I was shocked.
It printed very quickly, as lasers tend to. The print quality was great. This seemed to be just what I was looking for, wireless setup aside.
The printer came with a cd of software, Windows and Mac only, so most of you won't have most of these issues. Just for fun I tested the scanning function. From waaaay back, I remember that you have to use either a utility or graphics program and scan into it. And I did that. And it worked. Beautifully and much quicker than I remember.
The fax function, which I really needed AT THIS MOMENT, was nowhere to be found. In fact, I noticed there was no jack in which to plug the phone line. What happened? I think the genius who purchased the printer somehow transposed the models that included wireless with the models that faxed. Or the printer only included fax capabilities if it was shipped on alternating Wednesdays, on a thirteen month cycle.
My situation is difficult and weird, so you will not experience the same variety of grief I did. You may experience different varieties of grief - I don't know. I expect the wireless networking to be easier with software for your operating system, but I can't be positive.
The printer works well, quickly, and the print is nice. The scanner works quickly and accurately. The fax doesn't work at all, largely as it's not included on this model. Since scanning and printing work well, I think it's safe to assume that copying also works flawlessly (provided there's paper). HP no longer thinks hiding the power button is funny and has located it on the front of the printer, so naturally I had trouble finding it.
The printer does everything I want it to do.
If I get itchy, I'll give wireless networking another try. But I'll have to be damn itchy before that happens.
Unless it starts throwing random parts at me or the scanning mechanism breaks, I recommend this printer. For the price, you can't beat it.
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