Laptops Linux Printers

I am bit slow between the ears sometimes. Sometimes things take a long time to sink in and when they do, I have a "duh!" moment. I had one recently in an outlet of well known, computer chain store. I wandered up the printer aisle marvelling at the inventiveness of the printer manufacturers in conjuring up so many mutually incompatible containers that all serve to delivery streams of cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink. Such diversity in a such a small amount of shelf space.