April 7, 2026
From landfill to LOLs
Rescuing old printers with an in-browser Linux VM bridged to WebUSB over USB/IP
A web page revives dusty printers—and the comments are chaos
TLDR: A web app runs a tiny Linux system in your browser to make old USB printers work again. Commenters are split between cheering the e‑waste win and roasting the approach as overkill, with extra drama over AI coding help and fresh Apple‑vs‑Linux jabs—because of course they are
A forgotten photo printer just got a glow‑up thanks to a delightfully bonkers idea: run a tiny Linux computer inside your web browser so ancient USB printers work again. The dev mashed up a browser‑based PC emulator (v86), Linux print tools, and Chrome’s WebUSB to make it click‑and‑print simple—no extra box, no scary setup.
Cue the comment fireworks. The Apple vs. Linux saga re‑ignited with redeeman’s jab at “glorious OS X” and the perennial meme, “when will it be the year of the Mac desktop?” Meanwhile, the minimalists yelled “overkill,” with morpheuskafka wondering why not just “rewrite it in Go” instead of booting a whole computer in the browser. And of course, there’s AI drama: the author credited Claude for coding help, prompting the classic eye‑roll—“Another AI ad”—while pragmatists shrugged, “if it gets old printers working, ship it.”
Between the snark, real‑world relief poured in. One parent realized they could share a printer from a Linux box over AirPrint and finally stop being the household print concierge. Others just called it “pretty cool.” The vibe? Equal parts “mad science” and “grandparent‑approved,” with commenters cracking that we’re “printing like it’s 1999,” only faster and with fewer tears. It’s clever, a little chaotic, and might actually save good hardware from the trash—what’s not to love?
Key Points
- •A Canon SELPHY photo printer lacked support on macOS and Windows but worked on Linux using CUPS and Gutenprint.
- •A Manjaro Linux box with Avahi was configured to share the SELPHY over AirPrint, enabling printing from Macs and iPhones.
- •To avoid extra hardware like a Raspberry Pi, the author sought a software-only approach and first considered a macOS app using Virtualization.framework, USB forwarding, and mDNS.
- •The project pivoted to a cross-platform web app using Chrome’s WebUSB, avoiding installation and platform limits.
- •The web app runs Alpine Linux via the v86 emulator in the browser, auto-selects Gutenprint drivers with trigram matching, configures via lpadmin, and prints with lp, bridging to the device as described.