[Leaplist] Multi Function HP Laserjet 3050

[Bryan J. Smith]

Homer Whittaker <whittake at sbaflorida.com> wrote:
> This printer does just about everything, prints, scans,
> copies, wipes my butt, in Windows.

But which Windows version?  I have several HP
All-in-One (AiO) devices that are useless for Vista, or
even XP in the case of one older one (although HP offers
updated drivers for XP for $79 for that one).

The problem, as always, is that since Microsoft
does not provide various support for AiO functionality,
the software is licensed from 3rd parties by HP.
So the software is only good for the Windows
version it was released for.

This is different than Linux where, unlike Windows,
Linux comes with full subsystems to support many
things -- from printing to scanning.
Even Brother, Xerox and many others now have excellent,
far longer-term product support for Linux than Windows,
not just HP anymore.  ;)

> Is there anyway of making it play at least some of it's
> capabilities in Ubuntu or any Linux?

A good "starting point," for any OS, is the HP product
page for drivers/updates:  

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DriverDownload.jsp?prodNameId=1140778&prodSeriesId=1140783&prodTypeId=18972

Which quickly leads to this page:  

http://hplip.sourceforge.net/downloads.html  

Which took me about 30 seconds to reach overall, no
longer than if I was looking for Windows drivers for
the same unit.  But I'm more than happy to post this
to help you out.  ;)

BTW, according to this, additional page:  

http://hplip.sourceforge.net/models/laserjet/hp_laserjet_3050.html  

Stock Ubuntu 7.04 and later have fully support --
Printing, Status/GUI, Scanning *AND* even automated
FAX support.  Virtually all distros in the last 5+
years seem to have all but FAX, most "out of the box."

Interesting, better "out of the box" support than
Windows.  ;)

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