Re: Linux v Windows
"most printers currently available for the home market are winprinters"
Errm.... you sure about that? [looks at assorted Brother, Epson, and HP printers, inkjets, lasers, even a dot-matrix, and not a one of them is a 'winprinter', if only 'cause every one works with Macs.]
"finding a linux driver that works is very difficult"
That depends on the driver and the distro. In many (not all) cases, if the printer has a properly done Mac driver which is compatible with CUPS you can get it to work with some (not all) Linux distros. http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/openprinting/database/cupsdocumentation The boys at Gutenprint http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/ cover a lot of printers, and their drivers are sometimes better than the official drivers. HP also has fairly good Linux support. http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/index.html
In times past I used to use Gutenprint (then Gimp-print) drivers for several of my personal printers in preference to the official drivers. I could get PostScript-like output from cheap inkjets, which was a good thing.
Properly done Linux distros should ship with CUPS already installed and set up, all that's necessary is to get hold of the CUPS (that is, Mac) drivers from the vendor and install. As the vendor's installer will be aimed at Macs, that can be interesting, but there are sites which have Linux installers available.
Now, if the printer you want to use doesn't have Mac drivers, you might have a problem. But that printer really will be a winprinter.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
