Oranges and apples, Windows 2000 printer fail

Its an oranges and apples comparison comparing Windows 2000 to Ubuntu 9.10 Linux, but the comparison is somewhat valid because of the situation. A former volunteer came in the other day with a Windows 2000 computer he bought several years ago through the community MAR (Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher) program. He was having a problem getting a Hewlett Packard USB printer to work with Windows 2000. He had his install CD for the printer, we confirmed that his computer more than met the minimum specifications, and that he had sufficient service packs and updates to run the printer. We updated Windows 2000 as much as possible, found the latest drivers on HP's web site, and tried a number of different USB cables, still no luck.

So out of interest I decided to plug the printer into one of our Ubuntu 9.10 workstations. After a moment or two Ubuntu found the printer, installed the driver, and we were able to print an Ubuntu test-page.

Yes it's an apples and oranges comparison because we're comparing a new operating system (Ubuntu 9.10) to an old one (Windows 2000). But in this case the printer is supposedly "designed" for Windows and we had more problems installing it in Windows.

We resolved the problem by connecting a Dell USB printer. The Dell printer plus drivers did work with Windows 2000, which means the original problem had something to do with the driver/printer and Windows 2000, not some other hardware/OS issue.