Ambiguous version, most people use some -RELEASE version, so either 12.3-RELEASE or 13.1-RELEASE. There are -STABLE versions too (12-STABLE and 13-STABLE) but contrary to what you might think those are development versions (the 'stable' here refers to the ABI, not its fitness to run).I run FreeBSD AMD64 Stable.
HPLIP (HP Linux Imaging & Printing) is an HP-developed solution for printing,
scanning, and faxing with HP inkjet and laser printers in Linux. The HPLIP
project provides printing support for 3,171 printer and scanner models,
including Deskjet, Officejet, Photosmart, PSC (Print Scan Copy), Business
Inkjet, LaserJet, Edgeline Multi-function Printers,LaserJet MFPs and ScanJets.
On ubuntu, no idea how it works, but it works readily out the box.With CUPS you can add the printer in the web interface and choose Generic=> IPPEverywhere driver.
$ dmesg -a
ulpt0 on uhub1
ulpt0: <Name of your printer_HERE> on usbus0
ulpt0: using bi-directional mode
/usr/local/libexec/cups/backend/dnssd
/usr/local/libexec/cups/backend/http
/usr/local/libexec/cups/backend/https
/usr/local/libexec/cups/backend/ipp
/usr/local/libexec/cups/backend/ipps
/usr/local/libexec/cups/backend/lpd
/usr/local/libexec/cups/backend/snmp
/usr/local/libexec/cups/backend/socket
/usr/local/libexec/cups/backend/usb
$ /usr/local/libexec/cups/backend/usb
DEBUG: Loading USB quirks from "/usr/local/share/cups/usb".
DEBUG: Loaded 118 quirks.
DEBUG: list_devices
DEBUG: libusb_get_device_list=10
DEBUG2: iSerialNumber="3961BKBP224686D."
DEBUG2: Printer found with device ID: MFG:Samsung;CMD:GDI;MDL:ML-1610;CLS:PRINTER;MODE:GDI;STATUS:IDLE; Device URI: usb://Samsung/ML-1610?serial=3961BKBP224686D.
direct usb://Samsung/ML-1610?serial=3961BKBP224686D. "Samsung ML-1610" "Samsung ML-1610" "MFG:Samsung;CMD:GDI;MDL:ML-1610;CLS:PRINTER;MODE:GDI;STATUS:IDLE;" ""
$ dmesg -a
ugen0.3: <YOUR_SCANNER_NAME Scanner> at usbus0
No it uses a generic driver which supports many models of printers.On ubuntu, no idea how it works, but it works readily out the box.
no idea if it uses HPLIP