For our January “Community Choice” Project of the Month, the community elected HP Linux Imaging and Printing, an HP-developed solution for printing, scanning, and faxing with HP inkjet and laser printers in Linux.
The Hewlett-Packard Linux Imaging and Printing (HPLIP) Project provides a unified single and multi-function connectivity solution for Linux. It provides printing support for 3,012 printer and scanner models, including Deskjet, Officejet, Photosmart, PSC (Print Scan Copy), Business Inkjet, LaserJet, Edgeline Multi-function Printers, LaserJet MFPs and ScanJets.
Guarav Sood, technical lead of HPLIP Project recently shared some thoughts about the project’s history, purpose, and direction.
SourceForge (SF): Tell me about the HPLIP project please. What made you start this?
Guarav Sood (GS): HPLIP project was started many years back to facilitate Linux users to print/scan/fax on hp Multifunction Printers.
SF: Has the original vision been achieved?
GS: I believe it has been, though we continue to set goals to make it better and achieve our customer expectations.
SF: Who can benefit the most from your project?
GS: It was originally targeted to Linux home users who have a basic need to print. But as of now, in addition to home users it is also being used by enterprises on Linux OS.
SF: What’s the best way to get the most out of using HPLIP?
GS: One can go to our official website to get more details:
https://developers.hp.com/hp-linux-imaging-and-printing
SF: What has your project team done to help build and nurture your community?
GS: We help our customers through our official page at Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/hplip.
Here we track user issues/bugs and code contributions from the open source community.
SF: Have you found that more frequent releases helps build up your community of users?
GS: Our releases are in sync with the release of devices by hp.
SF: What was the first big thing that happened for your project?
GS: Perhaps when we successfully entered the enterprise world.
SF: What helped make that happen?
GS: Our team of developers were constantly working on making it better and feature-rich. We also had a proactive approach to helping our customers. That gave us a competitive advantage.
SF: How has SourceForge and its tools helped your project reach that success?
GS: Sourceforge has been hosting our binary perhaps since its inception. Our customers
never reported any hassles getting the software from Sourceforge. Further, we relied on Sourceforge metrics to see the trends about software.
SF: What is the next big thing for HPLIP?
GS: We are enhancing the core to cater to new requirements.
SF: How long do you think that will take?
GS: Perhaps it will happen by end of 2020.
SF: Do you have the resources you need to make that happen?
GS: Yes, we have a very good team constantly working to make that happen.
SF: Is there anything else we should know?
GS: Thanks to the Sourceforge community for all the support it has provided over the years.
To learn more about HP Linux Imaging and Printing, visit their official website: https://developers.hp.com/hp-linux-imaging-and-printing