Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Fri, 27 Feb 2009 02:02:25 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Be aware that some of the cheaper end of the range printers are "host
based" ie they rely on the host computer to do the grunt work. This
almost invariably means that you must have it plugged into a windows
machine.
Not necessarily. You can usually network them.

The cheap ones only have USB and no expansion slot for a network card. If
a printer has USB and ethernet they tend to have a proper printer
lanaguage as well but not all some have a maker specific language only.

The problems arise finding suitable drivers for machines other than
windows.

Which effectively makes the printer windows only.


Yes, but it doesn't mean it has to be attached TO a WinPC.

A raw queue on a e.g. Linux print server makes the printer 'look' like a
networked version of the printer.

Or some print server boxes handle USB.