[TriLUG] plotters with FOSS drivers?

[Kevin Hunter]

Hullo List,

I'm potentially in the market to purchase a plotter (capable of at least 
36in width rolls of paper), and being an open source enthusiast, I'd 
like to make sure that I get one that I can use with my OS of choice. 
I've been working for the past few days with an older DesignJet and, 
given my experiences with various settings and interactions with it, am 
sorely missing the quality of a FOSS driver.

Having done a basic few searches, I'm not immediately seeing any 
companies that offer plotters with drivers for Linux, nor am I having 
much success with my current knowledge of the situation in finding even 
basic drivers elsewhere.

This probably very much falls under the "do your homework" category, but 
I find myself not sure where to begin.  For one thing, I hardly know 
much about plotters other than they're "big printers".  Before I travel 
farther down this rabbit hole, I thought I'd ask the list.  Are there 
particular brands or models at which I should be looking?

Thanks,

Kevin