[sf-lug] Xsane can't see an HP Laserjet 1536dnf MFP scanner / printer

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Christian Einfeldt (einfeldt at gmail.com):

[...]

> It turns out that the problem was a proprietary driver.

I've been trying to warn people for a very long time:  HPLIP (set of
drivers & utilities for HP printers and scanners) is _not open source_,
not exactly.  It's 'open core':  There is an open source framework, but
for many HP devices a secret-sauce proprietary plugin is required that
has all the magic, and for those devices you'll get nowhere without the
plugin.

Linux distros don't even have the legal authority to redistribute the
proprietary plugins in question, so those are not included and must in
every case be (in one way or another) snagged on a post-OS-installation
basis from HP's Internet hosting.

Personally, I consider this an excellent reason to sell off (most) HP
printers & scanners to bigger suckers.  However, Views Differ[tm].

(Are the problems those devices introduce solvable?  Typically, yes.
It helps if you think your time and trouble has zero value, which makes
it all worthwhile.)


I should say one backhanded word of praise for HP, though:  At least
they stopped using the extremely misleading hostname 
'http://hplipopensource.com/' for this project, after misleading
the public for only a mere two decades.   It's now at
https://developers.hp.com/hp-linux-imaging-and-printing , instead.  
See?  Progress.  One big lie gone, only lots more to go.  Example:

https://developers.hp.com/hp-linux-imaging-and-printing/faqs

  Question: Which types of software licenses apply to HPLIP?

  Answer: HPIJS is licensed under the BSD license. HPLIP is licensed under
  the MIT and GPL licenses. More information can be found on the license
  page and the COPYING file in the source tarball.

  Question: Is the source code available?

  Answer: Yes, the source code is available on this website in the
  download section.

...which is lying by _omission_.  This is saying that the _core_ is open
source, conveniently omitting the fact that the HPLIP/HPIJS core is
utterly useless for most HP devices without proprietary binary-only
plugins.


> https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2273301

If I had a nickel for every time someone on Ubuntuforums.org advised
trusting a novice to circumvent his/her software package system, and 
install binary-only proprietary software from outside the distribution
_without warning_ in any way about this fact and its consequences, I'd
sure have a super-tall pile of nickels, wouldn't I?