Patrick has put an SSD on his old iMac and he's going to install Linux on it. Will printers and audio cards work? Will they have drivers? Leo says they will work, but he won't get Linux drivers from the manufacturers. He'll get them from the Linux community. Look up CUPS for printer drivers for Linux. It's open-source. But he shouldn't need separate drivers, Linux should support it. But Epson does have a Linux support page.
Lee has a printer and he'd like to wirelessly print through the router with Linux. Can he do that? Leo says Modern printers use WiFi to connect directly to the printer, but some routers have a special windows program for a print server. But it may no support your printer. Leo says that there is a driver called CUPS that may be able to do it. Look by router brand and model in the CUPS database. If it's there, then you can use CUPS to do it. Another option is to use VMWare or maybe even WINE to use the Windows version.
Shar wants to know how he can print on a miniCD disc using his Epson printer. Leo says that nobody uses those anymore and as such, there is no real way other than to create your own adapter. You could 3d print one. Leo also says that there is an open-source printer driver repository called CUPS. If there's a driver for your printer, it's there.
Darryl is thinking about abandoning Windows and going with Linux. Leo really likes Linux, but there are some things he should know before he jumps into it. First, there may be issues with drivers. But the older his peripherals are, the more likely he'll be able to find a driver to run it.
