hplip backports?
I went out and bought a newer HP printer, but the version of hplip it needs to work is newer than the one in Triquel 6. I was a bit surprised this important bit isn't maintained via backporting in the update manager. Is this something that is going to be added in the near future, and what would be the most effective process for me to bring hplip up to date?
Thanks in advance
It seems to be licensed under GNU GPL. You may download it directly from upstream.
http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/install_wizard/index.html
Watch out though, apparently it might suggest you a non-free binary blob!
If it tries to get you to agree to a proprietary license agreement you should consider declining.
Right, I saw that and it stopped me in my tracks. I do know that Trisquel has this, but seems to use some type of modified version that is all-free. I should have included that part in my question. Are there self-install options for those all-free backports or am I stuck waiting until a new version of Trisquel comes? I do want to be clear though this printer does work fine on my Parabola install which has the newer packages available so they are out there somewhere.
I would take a newer version from Ubuntu's repositories: http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=hplip
I am a member!
Despite HP providing a lot of excellent documentation on the status of its printers dependence on non-free software most of the printers readily available in retail stores currently are either dependent on non-free software or not compatible with Trisquel “out of the box”.
That complicates the situation quite a bit. Its not that easy to pick out the right printers as a result. You have to do a bit of digging through HP's documentation and then understand the not terribly well worded (from a free software stand point) documentation and what it means. Then you have to compare it against the HPLIP versions in Trisquel to see what should in theory work “out of the box”.
It can be more complicated than it seems at first too. Despite the appearance of what you see simply by visiting HP.com and personal experiences the company actually has over 2,000 different printer variations for laser printers alone. Factor in inkjet and all-in-one machines and now it's near impossible for the average consumer to figure out. Model numbers and product names get very confusing very fast as much of the documentation is too broad to be perfectly useful (an example 17 different core products contain a model number with “4500” in it, of which they are not all free software friendly, and there are dozens of variations for each more specific number too, not all of which may be available in a given market, but frequently are with slight variations in features and compatibility).
I've definitely been a big advocate for updating the HPLIP component and looked into what Rubén's done with the HPLIP packages. They have been modified to be free software friendly and as such I'd advise against using the Ubuntu repository or downloading from HP directly. We would like to fund an update to this package specifically although it hasn't quite happened yet (and not because we didn't commit money for funding it).
In any event if you haven't got a printer already I'd encourage you to get one from us (ie, ThinkPenguin, CEO of ThinkPenguin here, visit via libre.thinkpenguin.com, 25% of profit goes to help fund Trisquel development). We've stocked them for years and have models compatible “out of the box” with Trisquel 6. I've been working to add to our current line up too so there is quite a selection these days (although not all the most recent ones have support for Trisquel 6 “out of the box” yet).
If your outside the United States we're always happy to make some suggestions (not cost effective to ship printers outside North America and there is no printer stock in our UK warehouse), but it's a lot more difficult to advise with certainty as I've explained above.
In any event if you do stumble upon the right HP printer I think we concluded there was no non-free software included in the HP/Ubuntu download itself and as long as the printer does not need it then it won't download anything non-free. It's however in the code as such that the utility will download that non-free code for you if its a printer which depends on it. In conclusion while I'd advise sticking to HP you still have to be very careful!