If there is one horrible thing about Linux it's the relationship with peripherals, such as printers. All this is handled through Cups. Although I am amazed at how many printers they can do, the whole thing regularly screws up.
So, if you want to go all Linux, get a generic Postscript network printer. Those things always work. I, however, have an old Phaser 6125n which is generally fantastic, and you can put in really cheap knock-off toner cartridges. I'm sure that modern printers have all sorts of gimmicks that preserve their income from very expensive toner.
Nevertheless, this printer has a bizarre protocol, super secret, and there is only a 32 bit driver available. Following my instructions that I laid out earlier, you can make it work, but it's horrible.
Reading things for the last 10 years, I have found out that Cups regularly bombs out when it is upgraded. That happened to me, and my printer didn't work with my main machine. I tried endless things, but the main conclusion is that cups is busted in this version, but may work in the next.
However, I kept the other machine at another release, and it still works. You can use a shared printer and it works for all machines. The lesson is to never upgrade all your machines at once.
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