CUPS Printing System Open-Source Development Has Seemingly Dried Up

[ALRBP]

I'm not sure what the state of network scanners is in Linux though.

Depends on the brand I think, but with Brother, all scanners work great with their driver on Linux. I have two Brother network multifunction printers and no major issue on any Linux computer for printing or scanning. The main reason I am buying Brother is their official Linux support.

[Marc Driftmeyer]

From my position as a small business, very small, I hate it when I have to print. It means two things: I'm using up expensive ink and then I'm going to have to deliver what I print. It's like every print costs me $5. Double the money, double the pollution. I'd rather just email a PDF.

Ink? Use Black and White Laser Printing. If you are mailing color print offs you're doing it wrong. Send them a PDF in color, and a hard copy in B&W from a cheap laser printer.

[chill633]

If CUPS lives, a raspberry pi can easily turn that Brother into a network printer.

This. It also turns it into a network scanner. I recently set up a RPi Zero W up as a CUPS/SANE server. My Epson XP-610 is plugged in via USB and is easily visible on my home network as both a printer and scanner.

The XP-610 has built-in wireless, but I was uncomfortable with Google Cloud Print (EoL scheduled 12/31/2020) and Epson Cloud so I disabled both of them.

[nranger]

If I were to replace it I'd basically like a network-enabled version of it. I'm not sure what the state of network scanners is in Linux though.

If CUPS lives, a raspberry pi can easily turn that Brother into a network printer.

[skeevy420]

Best thing I ever did was to get a decent, multifunction b/w laser printer/scanner unit (Brother DCP-7055). Toner is very cheap, does not dry and laser prints very quickly. If I were to replace it I'd basically like a network-enabled version of it. I'm not sure what the state of network scanners is in Linux though.

I'm able to get my HP network printer/scanner/fax to scan on Manjaro over the network if that helps. The HP software simplifies that and makes it easy. I'm not sure how non-HP scanners are.

That's all I've ever needed so I'm going to look into that.

[StefanBruens]

I'm not sure what the state of network scanners is in Linux though.

Even that is using a standard protocol on many current printers, eSCL ("Airscan"). Its supported by many vendors, and at least on my HP479fdw its working great (via SANE).

For a great overview, see this talk from LPC 2020: https://linuxplumbersconf.org/event/...ne-airscan.pdf

[royce]

From my position as a small business, very small, I hate it when I have to print. It means two things: I'm using up expensive ink and then I'm going to have to deliver what I print. It's like every print costs me $5. Double the money, double the pollution. I'd rather just email a PDF.

Best thing I ever did was to get a decent, multifunction b/w laser printer/scanner unit (Brother DCP-7055). Toner is very cheap, does not dry and laser prints very quickly. If I were to replace it I'd basically like a network-enabled version of it. I'm not sure what the state of network scanners is in Linux though.

[skeevy420]

Asterisk + Hylafax and a SIP service with G.711 support. Bin the fax machines forever. There's an IAX2 soft modem for Hylafax so you don't even need physical hardware anymore. Just whack it in a VM and set/forget.

[DMJC]

acked the phone company ).
We do not even have faxes anymore, so ... we ended up faxing using some "unproven" 3th party online fax service. There goes all that 1on1 advantage ( and at higher cost i may add ).

Asterisk + Hylafax and a SIP service with G.711 support. Bin the fax machines forever. There's an IAX2 soft modem for Hylafax so you don't even need physical hardware anymore. Just whack it in a VM and set/forget.

[skeevy420]

I'm glad I focus on residential work then. It seems like 99% of the people I deal with want me to email them a bid with the occasional (very) old person wanting it on paper.

The times I have to fax, because I don't have a landline anymore I go to me friends' shop and use their fax machine.