Picking a printer that works with Trisquel can be difficult because Trisquel
does not support current HP models generally speaking. As was mentioned we
try and stock a few that *will* work today with Trisquel, but they're not
readily available, and we don't ship the printers outside of the states at
the moment. It's a bit tricky to do for a variety of reasons not least be
different regions need different cables, and there may or may not be ink sold
locally in a given region.
It's not a guarantee as HP does have different variations which some might
not work or not work out of the box anyway, but I'd suggesting starting with
HP's documentation here:
http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/recommended.html
What you want to do is click on the particular model printer your looking to
buy and make sure it has the following:
Minimum HPLIP version which is less than the number for which is included in
version of Trisquel your using. To do that go check packages.trisquel.info.
Enter HPLIP into the "Search packages directory" field/box. Then under where
it says Package hplip look for the version in the description. In Trisquel 7
(which is belenos)the version is 3.14.3.
Next check that the 'Support level' says full. If it doesn't then you might
be able to print with the all-in-one, but it won't scan. Or maybe the print
resolution will be less than the printer is capable of.
Next check the 'Recommended?'. Make sure it says Yes. If you don't get a
recommended model then you might not get bug fixes and similar in the near
future, or it might not be supported at all even. HP does not indefinitely
provide support any more. They maintain the support provided that it
continues to work, but if it stops working, nobody from HP is going to fix
it. Outside developers are welcome to submit fixes, but HP makes no
guarantees to the company fixing these models.
Now this is where the freedom aspect comes into play. There are two sections
at the bottom. One says "Driver plug-in". What this really means is that
there is or isn't a proprietary component required. Make sure it says none
here. The other critical thing to check is where it says 'Requires firmware
download'. If it says Yes then it won't be supported in Trisquel either as
this is also a proprietary component.
