If this hasn’t been thoroughly driven into the ground already by everyone else here…

Modern consumer 3D printers are self-contained, and do not require drivers for your computer, nor do they necessarily have to be connected to your computer at all. That definitely means no blobs. You can even run your printer with your PC powered off completely, or stick it in a room separate from your computers entirely. You might want to do either of the above because A) long print jobs can take approximately forever and you might want to let them run overnight, and B) they’re not exactly silent…

3D printers have an internal microcontroller and run what’s called “G-Code,” which (arguably in true UNIX/Linux tradition) is ultimately just a text file that’s even vaguely human readable that contains a set of specific instructions on how to move the print head around to create the object in question. G-Code is essentially just a program that your printer will run, and there are multiple ways in which to create it. How you get it to your printer is up to you: Most modern machines can be accessed over the network interface somehow, usually via a web browser, or you can just stick the files on a memory card or USB drive and chunk that into the printer physically.

The .gcode files you feed to your printer will be created by a piece of software called a “slicer,” which takes a 3D model and converts it into move instructions on a layer-by-layer basis (hence, “slicing”).

Whatever printer you buy will certainly come with its own slicer software, which may be lightly customized or not at all.

Nearly all slicer software is either open source or is derived from open source. The most notable and biggest name is probably Slic3r/Prusaslicer, which is open source, and is the basis of many manufacturer customized slicers such as Bambu’s OrcaSlicer, and Qidi’s QidiSlicer. Prusaslicer is available for Linux, and due to its ubiquity I recommend you start there.

You absolutely do not have to use the slicer your printer came with, and in fact you may not want to for various reasons. OS compatibility being one, and if your printer’s maker uses e.g. a customized version of Prusaslicer it is almost a certainty that their customized version is not based on the most recent version. If you don’t use the slicer software your machine came with you will have to configure Prusaslicer or whatever it is you decide to use for your machine, which is not as difficult as it sounds and basically just involves telling it that the physical maximum print volume of your machine is, where you expect the print head’s home position to be, how many extruders it has (probably just one), etc. The work has probably been done for you by someone else; you can get configurations for pretty much any machine from somebody on the internet somewhere.

You will also have to ensure that your slicer is spitting out G-Code in a format (or “flavor”) that your particular machine understands but that’s not a big deal these days considering basically every current consumer 3D printer can use Marlin G-Code.

I have only owned two printers personally, both Qidi machines: An original X-Plus, and now an X-Max 3. I’ve had great results with both. Qidi provides their own lightly customized version of Prusaslicer (see above) which they provide for Windows as well as Linux, but you can also just use Prusaslicer if you feel like it (see above again).

At the moment you can score an X-Plus 3 for $599 USD which is 536.95 EUR if Google is to be believed. I think this may be a good starting point for someone who wants a turnkey experience, a plug-in-and-use machine you can start printing with right away without a bunch of assembly, tuning, upgrading, fiddling, generalized nonproductive removeding around, nor dealing with Bambu’s proprietary bullremoved. (You could spring for the X-Max 3 like mine if you want, but it’s physically enormous and probably overkill if you don’t absolutely need the larger build volume.) The Plus 3 and Max 3 are essentially the same except for size. The Plus/Max 3 are also fully enclosed machines with internal build chamber heaters and are thus ready to handle higher temperature and more exotic filaments right out of the box if ever you feel you would want to print in more than just PLA and PETG, again without having to mess with upgrades or aftermarket stuff. For instance my X-Plus 3 prints ABS and ASA pretty much just as easily as plain old PLA which is not something you can say about a lot of machines.