Printers and installation

[Bruv]

I know a little bit about PCs, and I mean a little bit, just enough to surf and install a printer and maye do some other things but I am no boffin.

Printers are amazing things, considering what they do.

I have had several printers over the time I have had a PC, they tend to give up the ghost as soon as the waste ink reservoir fills or the jets block, or any of the many things that can go wrong,do go wrong.

I have just bought a cheapo HP DeskJet 1050A for 29 quid, because the previous HP all in one Photosmart just stopped working a while ago.

I needed to install it on two PCs one an old Win XP and another with Linux Mint Nadia.

The Windows took (I wasn't counting) about 20 minutes at least.

You load the installation disk before connecting the usb get taken to updates and the HP site etc.etc. then reboot and stuff, it's a long drawn out process.

With the Linux Mint I connected the USB, no disc involved, a dialogue said it had found a new printer, it paused a second or two.....maybe three or four (don't want to big it up too much) The it changed to 'Printer ready' or similar and that was it.

Why is Windows so complicated ?

[LarsMac]

The newer windows are a bit faster.

Win7 and Win8 generally can install a new device quickly.

While there is plenty not to like about them, Windows has improved some basic processes rather nicely