Quoting Menelaos Maglis (mmaglis@???):

> So I am left with below choices:
>
> * Accept no printing
> * Accept HPLIP+D-Bus if possible
> * Fork and change HPLIP or develop something new to do the job, if I have the abilities/motivation.
>
> At least this is an option in free software world.

As a reminder, HPLIP isn't actually even open source. It's open _core_.
This matter is frequently misunderstood, and HP actively participates in
misleading people in many individual ways including the domain name of
the upstream developer site, http://hplipopensource.com/ .

(Ah, I see that is now a redirect to
https://developers.hp.com/hp-linux-imaging-and-printing . That's
relatively new.)

HP does a bait and switch concerning this matter, whereby, yes, the core
engine of HPLIP is a stew of code (mostly Python) under GPL, MIT, and
BSD-ish licences, and the filter ('driver') modules for many old and
low-end HP printer models are likewise, but the codebase is totally
useless for _most_ HP printer models without huge proprietary BLOBs,
containing HP's 'secret sauces' and almost all of the effort and
complexity. This is one of the main reasons why, for decades, HP
printers have, in general, been a bottom-of-the-barrel choice for free
software / open source reasons.

I distinctly remember, when the omnibus HPLIP project was new and the
http://hplipopensource.com/ , thinking 'Hurrah! HP is seeing the light
and fully supporting Linux and open source.' HP was sending engineers
to Linux Printing Summits, and we all smiled and thought, 'See? This is
how progress happens.'

And then, a bunch of us looked closer. One of the turning points was we
started asking, 'Hey, this is supposed to be open source and even
bundled right _in_ Linux distributions as distro packages, so, _why_ is
it that the first thing that happens when you configure a printer in
HPLIP is that HPLIP says "You're going to have to download file $FOO
from HP's public site"?' And the answer was: Because the allegedly
open source nature was a sham and a con job.

My constant, frank advice to Linux users ever since, and that was a
couple of decades ago, has been 'Never buy HP printers, with very rare
exceptions, to use with Linux. If stuck with one, again with very rare
exceptions, sell it to some other poor slob.'

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it's testimony to just how
thoroughly HP conned the Linux world that, decades further on, many of
my Linux friends are still catching up with that bad news.