Mandrake-OpenOffice.org

From Grokdoc

I have been using OpenOffice since build 641 or something. I have never encountered any printing problem. OpenOffice uses the printer(s) installed on the system and prints correctly every time if the printer is correctly configured. If I have had printing troubles, these have been resolved using my distro's printing configuration tools(Mandrake). That also applies to my new all-in-one printer/scanner that Mandrake auto-detected and configured for me. Before buying a printer I usually check on the internet to see if the printer is supported or not.

I think "checking the internet" is not an option for beginners. Maybe printer vendors should provide some verbose help / visual stickers, so that new users will know if the printer will work with their OS of choice. Some vendors know what to answer when I ask them "does this work on linux?" (often: "if it doesn't, bring it back and get a refund"), but most don't. Of course, the question is how to encourage vendors to behave properly...

Additional note: All non-GDI (Winprinter) printers from Hewlett-Packard are fully supported on Linux by open source drivers provided by HP (and others). This includes most DeskJets, all OfficeJets, and all LaserJets. The drivers for inkjets and OfficeJets are available from Sourceforge. Furthermore, http://linuxprinting.org is the definitative source for getting printers to work on Linux. They have a table of supported printers and drivers for Linux. If it's not on LinuxPrinting.org, it's probably not supported.