How do I get someone to develop a driver for the Epson SureColor P-800 printer?

Hi

How do I get someone to develop a driver for the Epson SureColor P-800 printer? So it works with Ubuntu?

Cheers
Peter

You can achieve almost anything with money. Just the amount has to be right. The very first step to take is getting the developer the exact same printer model you want a driver for. Then you need to make clear which exact Ubuntu version it has to run on, etc. just to be sure. Everything else only depends on the money one is willing to offer. However, paying a driver developer probably wouldn’t be cheap, at all. I think it would be much more cheaper to just buy a printer that is guaranteed to be compatible with that Ubuntu version.

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I’ll bet Windows already has a driver for that printer.

I don’t have this printer to check but this appears to work ?

But the Epson site offers several

severalhttp://download.ebz.epson.net/dsc/search/01/search/searchModuleFromResult

Simply enter the printer model p 800

Im keeping the printer and will just run it on my Mac. I did consider TurboPrint… but 160 euro for a driver is a bit much… its also the only option to run that printer on Ubuntu…

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A license for 3 PCs in the same household is 60EUR.

Not if you want to be able to print A2.

I wonder why printers still need special drivers. If the manufacturers included the ability to process pdf files, they wouldn’t need to provide drivers for the different platforms. Cost shouldn’t be an issue nowadays, considering today’s chip prices. In the end, the manufacturers make most their money with the ink and not the printers themselves, except for some specialized models.

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Hardware issues for Linux isn’t just related to printers, and goes back a lot longer than some have been
using Linux. The only real fix is not to become totally reliant upon Linux. One can either keep a PC,
either Windows or a Mac, that is capable of running said hardware, dual boot Linux, or run Linux in
a VM or a dedicated machine just for Linux. I have gotten some HP printers and scanners to work
with Linux, but never to the point, where the same printer or scanner, would work with Windows. I for
one do not have the time or inclination to try to find a solution for every Linux issue, so until Linux
matures into a daily driver I can run my machine with, it will stay in a VM.
I am not anti Linux, but Linux does have it’s issues, and every other OS will have their Issues.

I see this is a problem with how the hardware manufacturers treat Linux. Some provide support for Linux too. Samsung and/or HP printers usually have Linux support. I’m also fine with Nvidia proprietary drivers so far- though I don’t have the newest most shiny stuff…
As for rely on what: Since a while I’m 99.99% moved to Debian, and thanks I’m completely happy.
For that 0.01% I have Windows in VM’s on my Debian, not the other way :smiley:
Edit:
You’re right in some way. I can utilize my Canon IP 7250 via CUPS+Gutenprint totally perfect, I needed to buy Turboprint for my Canon MG5330: without it I could print only to A4 from the default cassette, with Turboprint I can print to discs too, additionally it provides the maintaining functionality, such as head cleaning. Without Turboprint I’d miss those function, I still think it’s not a problem with Linux.

With either very expensive old printers or just normal new printers, you usually can attach a USB stick to it and then print it directly through the printer’s interface. No Linux, Windows or Mac blocking the user’s way to their printing goal.

The P-800 is expensive enough, but has no usb stick connection…

As far as I know Epson does provide drivers for some printers… I dont know why they havent provided one for the P800… they should.

TurboPrints 160 euro solution is to expensive… I’ll have to use MAC/XP for printing for now (alas).

I possess a 15 year old professional business printer. It has USB slots and its own Web UI.

@kovacslt…I am so happy this works for you, but like I said, I have
neither the time or inclination to make Linux work with my hardware.

Linux-Lite have dedicated Kernels for hardware such as Printers and the like, which they customize themselves. Linux-Lite is Ubuntu based too. Try it out in a VM or try it out without installing fully, live from USB. Have a read on their Website https://www.linuxliteos.com/

As far as I can tell there is no driver there for the p800 either.

Well said Akito.
As soon as I saw the question the first thing that came to mind was “Money will do the trick”.
And as for printers, it looks like I do something similar to you. I buy business quality used HP printers, such as laser 5100 or 5200. They have DirectJet ports and they run forever with very little maintenance.
By the way, I always enjoy reading your answers to questions.

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