Dear Lazyweb: I need a new printer

December 3rd, 2009

I’ve had my printer since 1998. That’s a damn good run for any piece of hardware. It still works insofar as it prints, but in 2009, we know it could do more. As it is, I only have one desktop left in the house with the old school printer connector so I can actually use it (it doesn’t have a network connection).

We’re not looking for anything crazy, just a fairly standard all-in-one:

  • Direct connection to the network. Wired is fine, it’s gonna sit next to a big ass gigabit switch.
  • Printer (duh). Standard paper size, we don’t have much of a need to print anything bigger.
  • Scanner for the five times a year we actually want to scan something.
  • Fax for the two times a year we actually need to fax something.
  • Ability to make coffee (we’re willing to bend on this one).

I’m looking at the HP all-in-ones, but I wanted to throw this out there to see if anyone had any recommendations and comments on Linux support.

Any advice is appreciated. Happy Holidays :)

Posted by Jay
Filed in Geek
6 Comments »

6 Responses to “Dear Lazyweb: I need a new printer”


  1. zenarcher
    December 3rd, 2009 at 11:05 am

    Well, I would recommend the HP OfficeJet 6310. I’ve used it for probably two years, replacing it’s earlier model, the OfficeJet 6210. It’s reliable and does everything you want one to do. They have an ethernet port…I plug mine in from there to my Linksys wireless router and in a matter of seconds, I can print from any computer, off the network, wired or wireless, using hp-setup.


  2. zenarcher
    December 3rd, 2009 at 11:07 am

    I should add that the fax capability is good, as well. It’s never failed to work for me, even faxing through my VoIP telephone setup.


  3. Jason Dobies: Dear Lazyweb: I need a new printer | TuxWire : The Linux Blog
    December 3rd, 2009 at 12:03 pm

    [...] more: Jason Dobies: Dear Lazyweb: I need a new printer Share and [...]


  4. Adam
    December 3rd, 2009 at 10:58 pm

    I have an HP all in one. THe good is that it makes a great scanner, printer, has easy network connectivity and does photos great. The bad is that you go through ink quickly, and it is expensive. Linux support for scanning with xsane works fine on F11. Printing same. Haven’t tried fax.

    See ya at work.


  5. Kevin Kofler
    December 5th, 2009 at 12:09 am

    HP is definitely a good choice given that there’s HPLIP: http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/index.html

    But please check before you buy that your model is supported WITHOUT the binary-only “plugin”. (Most of them are, but a few models require patent-encumbered protocols which HP only supports through a binary-only plugin.)


  6. Jay
    December 6th, 2009 at 1:50 pm

    Thanks for all the replies. The HPLIP link was great, I was hoping to find a good list of supported Linux functionality.