However, I discovered very quickly that the driver within Ubuntu, Foomatic/foo2qpdl isn't that compatible. The printout are dirty brown and the colour templates are awful, none work, plus side black is great and it does automatically recognise the printer.
So, you end up downloading the Samsung Unified Driver. Good news, Ubuntu instructions and they are simple and easy to follow. Bad news, the unified driver is closed-source and you can tell as the installer adds "Unified Driver Configuration" icon to your desktop and "Samsung Unified Driver" to your Application Menu, it stinks of Microsoft! Are Samsung trying to fill a gap or find a gap in the market?
Next dirty little addition is smfpd to your deamons, this is Samsung's unified solution to multi function printers connected via the LPT port, this was added due to a root level flaw in the previous version, but we are back to closed-source again and as you can probably guess, a USB only device has no need for this deamon. So, enter bum, or boot-up manager and deamon disabled, what is disappointing is the lack of description for this deamon, again something that would be done automatically in the open-source world.
So, driver installed enter the unified driver configuration and guess what? Two printers, one setup via Ubuntu/CUPS and one via Samsung Unified Driver, delete the Ubuntu/CUPS and Ubuntu will auto-reinstall at restart, the reason Samsung also create their own URI's for LPT and USB ports, again doubling there own work by not working with existing open-source methods for LPT/USB URI naming and creating the two printer issue. Messy, but I can live with it, so the Samsung Unified Driver Printer Driver needs configured because by default it selects the recommend and poor Foomatic/foo2qpdl printer driver, so after trial and error, I discovered that the correct setting is "Samsung CLP-310 Series (SPL-C)". The printouts look great and the colours are good, very good. The printer is quiet, it goes to sleep straight after printouts are complete, it is small, compact and cheap to run both electrically and on consumables.
It is a shame that Samsung's closed policy means a degree of messing around, but results are worth it for £90. I suggest Samsung should look at the policy on drivers and follow HP into open-source market.
Further Reading:
http://www.samsung.com
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