linux printing is a joke

The other day I bought a USB HP psc 1215 'printer scanner copier' after being told it would work with Linux.

I shouldn't be so gullible.

run the Add Printer wizard.

The first stupidity I'm confronted with is the error:

'The printer name may only contain up to 127 printable characters.'

But I simply entered 'hp 1215'. I try removing the space from the name I entered. No error this time.

So spaces are 'unprintable'...that is, according to the CUPS printer administration tool? Riiiight.

Moving on, my device appears in the list as:

USB Printer #1 (Hewlett-Packard psc 1200 series)

so I select that.

For Model-Driver I select 'HP'.

I'm then asked to select 'Model-Driver for hp1215'. This is beginning to feel tautologous. Doesn't CUPS already know what I have? Anyway... Everything is given in an enormous long list, just like Windows. And for some reason, almost 80% of the drivers are 'recommended'. Why is that? Does CUPS really have no idea about printers?

I can't find my model in the list. The closest match appears to be: HP PSC 1200 Foomatic-hpijs (recommended)

So I choose that.

CUPS says the printer has been added successfully so I print a test page. CUPS must be in league with the ink manufacturers because the test page uses way too much ink. Still, at least I know it works.

That is, until I try to print anything useful. I try printing an email in Thunderbird but nothing happens. Thunderbird thinks the print has worked but nothing ever gets to the print queue. Same with Firefox, same with Abiword, same with Gnumeric.

I try some similar drivers like the psc 1210 but it still refuses to work for anything but the test page.

What a steaming pile of crap.

If this is a 'supported' printer under Linux, no wonder Linux printing is generally regarded as a joke.