[LINK] Linux printer installation not for newbies

[grove at zeta.org.au]

On Thu, 21 Sep 2006, Danny Yee wrote:

> Frankly, printers are a nightmare regardless of operating system.
> I did a survey once and the building I work in has printers from
> more than a dozen different manufacturers, all of whom do things
> differently.  Even with Windows, some vendors use the built-in Windows
> printer management system, while some have their own installers.
> And then there are all the different protocols for talking to printers,
> and all the different print languages...
>
> Our rule here is: get an ethernet capable printer that accepts
> postscript.  Not that that guarantees anything, of course -- there are
> printers out there with decidedly buggy postscript engines in them --
> but it avoids the worst problems.

100% agree with everything Danny says.

Printers are evil.   Postscript printers are less so.
Network printing is in many ways simpler but still fraught with
problems.

Printing from computers is such an ancient and timeless thing, you'd
reckon it had to have been sorted out 25 years ago, but of course
there's so many competing protocols and systems.

We stuck with old skool LPD (Berkeley) and it works fine.
I have an LPD server at home with a network spool and we can print
from anywhere in our home network.

At work we have a similar setup, except for some strange reason,
"someone" decreed that all UNIX printing must go through
a Microsoft print system.   This means  Good Ole LPD just
keeps humming when Windows is bumming.

Tried CUPS, but it seemed to be incomplete so we went with
LPRng as the LPD and just print to the network via Postscript
and it works fine.....

With printers, simpler is best......


rachel

-- 
Rachel Polanskis                 Kingswood, Greater Western Sydney, Australia
grove at zeta.org.au                http://www.zeta.org.au/~grove/grove.html
	"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security,
	deserve neither liberty or security" - Benjamin Franklin, 1759