https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=808315
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=808315#c3
--- Comment #3 from Johannes Meixner 2013-03-12 15:43:13 CET ---
The problem with (almost) all driver software
from hardware manufacturers is that they make their
software as they think is best for their users
which is not necessarily best for a Linux distributor.
I do not have the time to investigate for each
new version of HPLIP what HP might have changed
that is no longer o.k. for us as Linux distributor,
patch it, and maintain all our own patches continuously.
It was pure luck that I found the change in
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=649280#c10
I would prefer if we could distribute free software from
hardware manufacturers basically "as is".
The current issue in HPLIP is only because HP's point of view
(only users with a HP device install HPLIP) and our point
of view (we install HPLIP unconditioned for all users)
are different.
Strictly speaking HP's point of view is more correct because
why should someone without a HP device install HPLIP?
We never really worked on developing a reasonable solution
how to install only matching driver software packages.
Obviously only relying on automatisms cannot work.
Because the automatism often fails, we currently simply
install almost all printer driver packages by default.
But why don't we install e.g. "splix" (only 4 MB) also by default?
I think this is because the number of users who cannot
"just set up a Samsung SPL printer" (i.e. without the need
to get and install "splix" before) is so low
that it seems we can ignore them.
But why are users with Samsung SPL printers treated
different than users with HP or Epson printers?
For openSUSE 13.1 I like to think about a reasonable solution
how to install only matching printer driver software packages.
I think I can do something in yast2-printer.
The current "Add Driver" dialog in yast2-printer is not really
a good solution to install matching driver software packages.
It works o.k. when one knows the RPM package name
but it is not really helpful if the user only knows
his printer model name. The "Add Driver" dialog was never
meant for this use case. (Its main use case is that the
user can remove unwanted printer driver software packages
because we install almost all those packages by default.)
yast2-printer is currently run at the end of the installation
and I think I can do something at that time to install
reasonably matching driver software packages at least for
locally connected printers (i.e. USB printers).
Something like:
If there is a HP USB printer, install HPLIP.
If there is a Brother or Canon or Epson USB printer, install Gutenprint.
If there is a Samsung USB printer, install Gutenprint and Splix.
...
I.e. not model specific but manufacturer specific.
Of course this is not THE ultimate final solution for everybody
but it could be a reasonable starting point...
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