Mono Laser All in Ones now less than thirty quid!

[T i m]

Of course. In the real world none of this is the 'perfect solution'.

Good solution.

The problem is very few know of Linux and you never (rarely) know when buying a product, if it's 'Linux compatible' (not that GNU / Linux means anything in and of itself as far as kernel / version is concerned). It's even more difficult if you try to get formal (Linux) support on something where Linux isn't mentioned.

However, when buying pretty well any hardware or software you have a pretty good idea what Windows is supported (at least, other versions may also be etc).

So, as with the printer the OP referenced:

... we can be *sure* it will be compatible with:

"XP, Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Server 2003/2008/2012" (that's ~15 years worth of Windows) at least and if It doesn't work with one of those you can formally contact support on and ask why.

In theory I would expect the same reply when asking for support on W8.1 and 10, OSX or Linux, however, I feel there would still be a better chance of it working with 8.1 or 10 than OSX or Linux (especially in this case with it being a GDI printer).

This isn't an 'anti Linux' comment, it's simply a reflection of the real world, especially as observed by most ordinary users out there, especially when it come to initial purchase confidence and formal support.

Cheers, T i m

p.s. Windows XP, 7 and 10 and Android can Network Print and Scan to my new Ricoh MFP. Linux can only print to it (not tried OSX yet). I would love to be able to use Linux with as many things as I can Windows but I'm not surprised that I can't.

[dennis]

If it was postscript capable printer then you didn't need drivers in windows vista/7/8/10 you just needed to tell windows it was a postscript printer.

[whisky-dave]

Toners do age though the powerder clumps together.

[Martin Brown]

With my Dell 1320c colour printer I had to wait a while for the clone makers to catch up but they did fairly quickly and now I can buy a full set of CYMK toner cartirdges for less than the price of refill toner.

It is worth researching if third party aftermarket toner cartridges or refill toner is available before buying an apparently very cheap engine only to find out that it has extortionately priced bespoke fuel.

[Jaffna Dog]

A lot of cheap printers won't even accept the manufacturer's official cartridges, presumably the software algorithm that detects fake cartridges is too sensitive, so then you have to bin the whole printer when one cartridge runs out.

[tabbypurr]

I had several lasers that only ran on some very obsolete version of windows. Still worked but no use. We still have perfectly good printers from the win3 era, few folk today would be prepared to run win3 to support a printer.

NT