just a tip i picked up from a ex workmate
in ubuntu 12.04 use the driver for a samsung ml1010 dont know why but it just works 
Handy to know … Dell printers have IMHO always been a PITA to get to work in Linux … a lot of them (particularly inkjets) use a proprietary communication format, so never will work in Linux.
That said … I don’t think Dell make printers, so they’re all made by other manufacturers … so some are “pretty much” just rebadged printers.
I certainly wouldn’t “recommend” Dell for printers for Linux … but if you already have a Dell 1100, that’s good news
turns out my friend who gave me the tip say the dell 1100 is a samsung ml1010 in dell case
i don’t know for sure but trust him
They are ALL rebadged printers, with slight modifications … some are only modified slightly, so the ink cartridges have to be Dell ones … others have been more heavily modified to use the Dell proprietary communication tech.
I seem to vaguely remember seeing a list on openprinting.org that said which work in Linux and which never will unless Dell ever decide to make Linux drivers.
I also seem to remember that Dell DO make Linux drivers for some of their more “Office” oriented printers … but not so much for the “Home” oriented inkjets. (I could be wrong though)
On the whole, I just recommend HP, as you can be pretty certain they’ll be well supported by hplip, and even if they’re a new model they’ll eventually have a GUI front end in hplip-gui 