I'll start off with a little disclaimer. I never did what I am going to tell you to do. I have a better way to do it, and you may too.
The image shows the settings in my Windows 7 control panel. The settings as you see them will
allow the computer to be discovered by other computers on the network. There also is a setting to
allow sharing of files and printers. You could allow the
Public folder to be shared, but I don't.
Streaming and encryption are irrelevant in my case. I
require a password to enable the sharing - I don't want my neighbors across the street to be printing on my printer, unless they have an account on it. And that is what you will need to do for people to share the print services. When an account is created for them, that effectively makes the share and they need login credentials to use the share thus created.
HomeGroups are totally useless, but some people like them. I
let Windows manage them, but have them turned off in the Homegroup settings.
So, in order to use the shared printer on this Windows 7 (and it may work on other flavors too) computer, you go to your network listings and look for the share (labeled as the user's account name I would presume). Click and log in. Then start printing. My best guess is that all you need to do is drag the document into the share and it will print.
To answer your question, it seems that with this arrangement only the Windows computer needs the print drivers because it effectively is acting as a print server. Obviously the client has to send the data to the printer and that may or may not require a set of drivers. if printing is truly a "shared" experience then no client drivers would be required - it's no different than saving files to an NAS, for example. Only in this case you are printing that file instead of saving it. I will admit that each time I set up a printer on any of my Linux boxes, I must install the appropriate drivers. But, the above described scenario is file sharing, not for setting up a printer per se.
Your new printer will be USB and WiFi capable. Yes, I'm reasonably certain you can set it up to do both. When you install a printer from one of your computers, you will have to select if it is a network or a USB printer. To get the functionality of both you will have to set up two print services, i.e., end up with two printer icons, one being WiFi and one being USB. You must select which one is the default, but obviously you can switch if the urge inclines you to do so.
And now for the good news. I don't recall for certain, but I think the printers you showed me have the capability to be a stand-alone Internet network print server. That makes it unnecessary for the printer to be attached to your LAN because the built in print server is attached to the Internet. Thus when your mobile device wants to print something, it sends it to the print server via the internet. No LAN, no shares, no nothing; just an Internet connection. Your printer manual will have instructions on how to do that, and all your mobile devices must have that capability as well. The interface is the Internet and the print drivers are not needed by the mobile devices - it's all done by black magic inside your Internet Print Server.
