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I want to buy a printer/scanner combination. My current choice is the new Canon Pixma MG8150, it has good specs and Canon seems to get lots of praise in printer reviews. But my desktop PC has only Ubuntu 10.10 (no Windows as dual boot/VM/whatever) and I don't know how good the Canon drivers for Linux are. I've only had HP before and the drivers worked OK, but I don't like the new HP models.

If you had experience with Canon printers, scanners and/or combo devices before, please share your experience.

  1. How easy is it to get the device to work?
  2. Are there functions which are not supported (which ones?)
  3. How long does it take until drivers support the newest model?
  4. Who makes the drivers, Canon themselves or is it a community project like the Wacom drivers?
  5. Where can I get additional info (project page, or maybe a Canon page where I can download them - I looked for one, but did not find it)
  6. If Canon does not work well under Linux, which brand (besides HP) does?
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  • no idea about this model, but I have not had good experiences with Canon printers in linux in the past (long time ago, to be honest, but still, first impressions sure matter). All Lexmark printers we now buy at $WORK have a penguin logo on the box :-); I do not know about their home models, though.
    – natxo asenjo
    Oct 31, 2010 at 9:30
  • @natxo asenjo That's interesting - Lexmark seems to really have official support for Linux, unlike the other manufacturers. On the other hand, I read a review where their model had an average print and scan quality and the highest print costs for color. I wonder if their official Linux driver has the same functionality as the Windows one (including OCR)
    – rumtscho
    Oct 31, 2010 at 14:44

3 Answers 3

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The printer you say you have intention to buy is in theory supported by the proprietary Canon linux drivers http://support-asia.canon-asia.com/P/search?model=PIXMA+MG8170&menu=download&filter=0&tagname=g_os&g_os=Linux . The last Canon I had brought me some issues in scanning from Linux so I changed to Brother multifunction printers and I have to say that the support with Brother has been really outstanding. For the looks of Canon website it looks like they are supporting all the major series with their proprietary drivers though, so they must have upped the game since the last time I checked.

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bought a Canon Pixma MG8150 about 2 hours ago.... Connected through wired Lan..

Installed onto Ubuntu 10.04 using the debian package print and scan drivers from the Canon website.

The print function worked instantly and without drama, and appears to have full functionality.

Couldn't get the scanner to work via Lan, probably needs some additional package or changing some settings to tell xane where to find it on the network??.... Scanner however works fine using USB except that it doesn't appear to support the slide/film transparency function, in which case you are better off buying the cheaper MG6150 without this feature.

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  • I am already waiting for an Epson delivery, but thank you very much for sharing! Seems like we Linux users can start expecting common hardware to work with our OS :)
    – rumtscho
    Nov 14, 2010 at 9:17
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Yup, If you want to use Cannon under Linux plan on installing a VM and printing via Windows. I got partial printing to work, but duplex print failed miserably.

I just installed a Cannon MF8580cdw and it's a great machine under Win Vista or equiv. But iffy under Linux Mint 13.

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