I've noticed a general sentiment that printing on Linux is (or at least was) extremely cumbersome and difficult. Why is that?
That's not been my experience.
Granted, printers suuuuuck. But I was legit surprised when both the printing and scanning functions in Linux were hands down better than windows.
I think that used to be the case more than it is now. Linux now uses the same printing system (CUPS) as macOS, and macOS printing has to work or Apple's customers would be unsatisfied.
It used to back in the day, especially if you tried using shitty windows usb inkjets.
Nowadays basically all printers are network printers (they are, aren't they?) plus we have cups which is the same thing macos uses (so manufacturers actually care).
As long as your printer is supported, it's not difficult. The problem is that if you need advanced options, like artists need usually, the options aren't there.
Printing on Linux has been seamless for me so far, unlike windows and macos
HP Laser 107w, driverless, over LAN.
I just Ctrl+P from any software and it prints.
It also prints programmatically (for e.g. folk.computer ) thanks to IPP.
I didn't have to "think about printing" since I have that setup so I don't know where you get that sentiment.
Linux printing is very complex. Before Foomatic came along you got to experience it in all it's glory and setting up a working printing chain was a pain. The Foomatic Wikipedia page has a diagram that will make your head spin.
No doubt, the kernel itself is also quite complex... but my comment here is on the user experience perspective, namely, for me at least "it just works". So I'm not trying to imply it will work for anybody flawlessly nor that it's due to the simplicity of the stack, solely that it works, for me.
I noticed this too. In theprimeagens recent video on cups problem they kept making jokes about printing on Unix. I think I must be lucky or something cause so far every printer I have setup on Linux has been easier then having to download all the bloatware to make them work on windows. But I have only done about 6 printers so far on Linux.
I haven't used a new printer or an inkjet in a number of years now, but using my 18yo HP laserjet is a matter of plugging it in and checking it's status under the main distro settings menu. That was also on par with the windows process iirc.
I do remember 20 years ago when I had to sideload pcmcia wifi drivers, though.
My brother needed the driver installed in debian on Qubes but has been flawless beyond that. When I was still running arch it just worked out of the box
For basic document printing it's been great but for doing fancy print jobs it's tough on any os depending on the printer and support. My wife makes stickers and notebooks and got a fancy Epson printer and going windows Mac and Linux it was a pain. She finally got it down on her windows machine.
Even the documentation was terrible. It told her for duplex prints she would have to manually move the paper but once she figured it out it was all automatic. Youtube guides were even worse since they said it wasn't even possible on that model
Dunno, I own the cheapest Ink Jet HP sells and setup is much faster on Linux than via their drivers on Windows.
Gnome Scanner also wipes the floor with any scanning application from HP/MSFTYou're printin experience within Linix is going to entirely depend on which printer you have. Some work out of the box immediately others take hours to get working and digging through forums looking for drivers.
my printer spits out page upon page of random characters and mess when I try to print from my desktop, gave up and use my phone now
