Just wrote another lengthy, but informative post on picking out an HP printer
(particularly if your outside the USA). Going to copy here for you below. As
others stated they're all right about the non-free plug-in issue with this
printer. This model is not free software friendly at all... there are a
number of problems with HP printers you should be aware of in your hunt for a
replacement and I'll try and go over a number of them below. HP is the best
as far as I'm concerned in regards to documenting and supporting free
software within the printer realm. And to give you background on me I'm the
CEO of ThinkPenguin. I've got a bit of experience in this department so the
info below is *quite* reliable. We've been selling printers within the US for
years, and every one is thoroughly checked out before being added to our
catalog. Unfortunately we can't really ship outside the US at the moment
(well, Canada maybe, not Mexico, Europe, Australia, etc).
... here goes:
Picking a printer that works with Trisquel can be difficult because Trisquel
does not support current HP models generally speaking. It's one of the
problems with looking through h-node for a printer. Chances are you won't
actually be able to find a model that is still readily available on the
market. There are a very small number of exceptions. 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 also not a guarantee that what HP reports will work will actually work
in Trisquel. For a variety of reasons this is the case. One being non-free
pieces, but another being there are different variations, which does impact
support. There are actually more issues I've recently realized as well with
the way some distributions (and probably Trisquel too) are importing updated
versions from upstream (or failing to do so I should say- that is to say
there might be an updated driver for hplip in ubuntu-backports, but that
doesn't mean that Trisquel 7 has imported the updated version from
ubuntu-backports, so while a printer may work in Ubuntu 14.04 via
ubuntu-backports you can't just assume that other distributions based on
Ubuntu 14.04 will also support the same printers).
If your outside the US I'd suggesting starting with HP's documentation here
as it does provide the best starting point in terms of locating a Trisquel
compatible printer (much more so than the h-node database):
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.
The last thing I need to point out is that while HPLIP is free software it
will download non-free components for many HP models. As a result it's not
sufficient to install the latest HPLIP driver from HP. You will only be able
to determine if a printer is free software friendly (or likely is) by
checking the information above. The Trisquel version of HPLIP has been
modified to exclude printers which are dependent on non-free pieces. As a
result it wouldn't surprise me if there are errors in h-node's database in
regards to any HP printers listed. Many users that are submitting such data
aren't competent enough to supply accurate identification. Essentially there
testing methods are flawed. Checking HP's documentation is therefore a better
method.
