PCInk - 12:06 pm on Dec 16, 2012 (gmt 0)

Well, I eventually managed to get this working.

Ubuntu suggests two printer drivers and Epson suggest two as well (they are probably the same two). Neither of them will work with dovecot and samba installed. They seem to work if dovecot or samba is installed. It seems any two out of the three will install but the last will always fail with "broken packages" messages.

I found a generic driver on the Epson website. It supports several hundred printers, including many not listed yet by Ubuntu and it worked first time. The driver supports a limited range of printer options but it prints.

How do I suggest this driver to the Ubuntu team to add to the suggested printer drivers?

People still print?

Yes. Especially people that do ecommerce. Printing labels for couriers and addresses for posted items is the bulk of the printing but necessary.

Except for the desktop, your world runs on Linux/Unix/BSD. Your DVR and router runs Linux. The internet runs on *nix. Netflix runs on FreeBSD. Air traffic control, too, as does your refrigerator (maybe). And on and on.

The DVR and fridge may run Linux but that is due to cost rather than quality. In comparison to anything Microsoft offer, both the OS and the CPU will be cheaper if they run something like Linux. Cost is the reason manufacturers use it, not necessarily quality.

It just seems everything in Linux has been made deliberately more difficult to use than it could be. I don't know if it is a trend but I am seeing the same thing happening in lots of other technology systems usually at the expense of 'looking pretty'.