My OpenSuSE could talk to their MP830 printer, but some frick'n idiot at Canon thought it would be a great idea to drop standards and write proprietary communication protocols for the MX850.
Now they DO support OS X on the MX850, but get this: the Canon support rep said they didn't support *nix based systems! What a maroon! What the hell does he think OS X is(BSD UNIX based kernel). And it runs CUPS!
I am so *issed at Canon. I've been a Canon customer since high school when I bought my first SLR. I'm on my 5th with all the lenses and accessories.
The lack of printer support by many vendors is a weak spot of Linux. There is a website that identifies which printers are supposedly Linux compatible and those that are not.