For years I've been using public printing options to print anything that needs printing. Most all of my data can be digital, and I've become rather fastidious at managing and maintaining digital data. Living in Taiwan, paper gathers dust, gets dirty, yellows, and can easily become moldy. However, there are times that you just need to print something.
In the past (up until yesterday), if I needed to print something I would simply copy the file on my USB drive and plug that into whatever kiosk or computer the convenience store or print shop had and print. I read the waiver for years saying something to the order of "we may keep an image of what is being printed....." for whatever reason, and tapped "Ok" and paid the few cents per page printing fee. I've never liked doing it, but I print so rarely, I thought it was the best middle ground.
However, with all this AI mumbo jumbo becoming ubiquitous, I think the margin for error on the parts of these "tech companies" is just growing. The latest announcement from Microsoft introduces "Windows Recall", and that was the straw that broke my camel's back. The layers of fat that had put up with so much over the years, could protect the poor camel NO MORE. This is a ridiculous, unneeded, and potentially dangerous feature that no one is asking for, aside maybe from investors asking Microsoft why they need to spend billions of dollars on the letters 'A' and 'I'.
Now, having been a Linux user almost entirely for 6 years, I'm not too worried about this Windows feature. However, where would I expose my data on a Windows system? When I print something, because everyone uses Windows at the Kiosk, at the print shop, etc. Microsoft claims the data is "private and on device", but not if it isn't my device - if a Windows PC is anyone's personal device in the first place.
So, with all that said and ranted about, I decided it was time to purchase an actual printer. After exploring some options, I settled on the HP M141W which is an entry-level black-and-white laserjet with a scanner. It has network access, but I decided to just connect via USB. The tinfoil hat remains in place.
The packaging listed all the steps, apps, drivers etc for every platform and claimed to require Internet access. but on Linux the printer definitely works and does not require to connect to the Internet. Simply ensure the packages 'hp-ppd' and 'hpijs-ppds' are installed (at least that is what I tested on PopOS / Ubuntu / Debian). The scanner worked immediately, while the printer needed to be power cycled after the driver package installed.
Based on my needs, I am hopeful this will last a good while. Printer support in Linux is known, these days to be quite robust thanks to the CUPS driver stack most printers will be supported, but always check. I ensured that HP printers, as a policy, have Linux driver support, and just wanted to share the steps to get it up and running.
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