If it works, it should work out-of-the-box. But the only printer manufacturer
that does a really good job in this department is HP. I think all of them
require proprietary firmware, but a large number of them have that firmware
built-in, so they will at least work without the OS having to load that
proprietary firmware (e.g. on Trisquel). That is, once the version of hplip
needed for the printer is available in the distro you're using, which can be
a couple years depending on the time.
The next time you look for a new printer, you may want to shop at Think
Penguin. They sell slightly old HP printers, so that they will work with the
current version of Trisquel, and choose models that work without the OS
having to load proprietary firmware onto them (again, so that they work with
Trisquel). Link is here:
http://libre.thinkpenguin.com
