Non sequiturs like this don't do anyone any good. This thread is about CUPS. If you want to create a thread and bitch about iPhone development do so there.
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Apple Acquired CUPS
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Non sequiturs like this don't do anyone any good. This thread is about CUPS. If you want to create a thread and bitch about iPhone development do so there.
Very true. Even with USB printers on Windows, it's often possible to download the "network" version of the driver, which won't include all of the system tray junk that gets installed with the typical consumer-level printer.
Apple Acquires Cups?
Now they just need the saucers and the gravy bowl to complete their Lennox collection. Maybe they can register for them if they have a big merger soon.
Now they just need the saucers and the gravy bowl to complete their Lennox collection. Maybe they can register for them if they have a big merger soon.
The source tree license is GPL/GPL2. It will continue to be used by the greater Unix/Linux/*nix communities.
Or how about letting Parallels be Parallels and Apple doesn't need to bother buying them because having great 3rd party software like Parallels around only helps, not hinders Mac OS X.
Sebastian
This is very good news. I'm pretty sure Apple will be able to add some more resources to CUPS development. I used CUPS on Linux long before I used it under Mac OS.
Cups has made printing easier than it used to be in the old days when we had to install filters in /etc/printcap files but Cups still has a long ways to go. (for example what happens if i move a print job that is set up for A4 paper and double sided at 600DPI to a printer that lacks one of those specs?. Also we must have 20 printers here and half are still no usable with Cups except in the most basic way.
So it will be good not just for Mac OS but for all UNIX based systems if Apple puts some money into this.
Cups has made printing easier than it used to be in the old days when we had to install filters in /etc/printcap files but Cups still has a long ways to go. (for example what happens if i move a print job that is set up for A4 paper and double sided at 600DPI to a printer that lacks one of those specs?. Also we must have 20 printers here and half are still no usable with Cups except in the most basic way.
So it will be good not just for Mac OS but for all UNIX based systems if Apple puts some money into this.
Yes I'm pleased that they are focused on improving printing in OS X. I've seen improved print dialog boxes in Leopard and this further solidifies Apple's focus on printing.
Michael Sweet is great, as is CUPS
Years ago (OS 10.0 I think...) I was trying to get and old Epson FX-880 dot matrix printer working with OS X. I had been running it using some old classic software, which came with a USB to parallel cable, I wanted to avoid classic. There is a CUPS driver for the old dot matrix printers (several), but the driver had a problem, when I printed more than one page the next pages got more and more off line. I had a back and forth via email with Sweet, and we figured it out (you can see it all at the CUPS website), he was incredible. I'm probably the only person on the planet using the driver, but he responded right away and stayed with it until it was fixed. He deserves every penny.
Years ago (OS 10.0 I think...) I was trying to get and old Epson FX-880 dot matrix printer working with OS X. I had been running it using some old classic software, which came with a USB to parallel cable, I wanted to avoid classic. There is a CUPS driver for the old dot matrix printers (several), but the driver had a problem, when I printed more than one page the next pages got more and more off line. I had a back and forth via email with Sweet, and we figured it out (you can see it all at the CUPS website), he was incredible. I'm probably the only person on the planet using the driver, but he responded right away and stayed with it until it was fixed. He deserves every penny.
Hmmm, that's pretty interesting. My next printer will hopefully be a Brother 2040 (nice simple laser printer) or the Brother 2070N which is essentially the same printer but with network capabilities. I'm hoping that without all of the extras, there won't be any software fluff that I have to install to get it working.
The only BIG difference is if Microsoft wants to use it and try to change it they need Apple's permission.
Almost all flavors of Linux uses CUPS. With M$ joining up with all the different Linux companies this could cramp the M$ style.
It should be noted that the real reason Apple purchased the code, trademarks, and developer was because they didn't want to risk CUPS being licensed under GPL3. GPL3 is particularly insidious in its patent licensing and "tivo clause" requirements, the former requiring Apple essentially to license software patents and the latter requiring Apple to give up a great deal of control over hardware.
GPL2 was very nice, and Apple has played along and contributed back to the community. GPL3 was unacceptable to them so they've preemptively bought out the printing system. It's likely Apple will try other avenues to get around GPL3 in areas like gcc (apple is contributing heavily to work on non gpl compilers) et etc.
It doesn't HAVE to be this way. Unfortunately in a lot of companies the bosses think you are doing a lot more if there is a lot more to install. That used to drive me absolutely batty when I was a programmer and why I got out of it in the early 90s. Just got tired of the BS from idiot project managers.
My idea was always to program so that it was best for the people using it. Simplify, simplify, simplify while packing in as much power as you can. Power doesn't have to mean complicated as we all know. That's why Apple gets in and so many companies don't.
I'd rather have them on there then have to install the drivers for each and every bloody thing I buy like you do on Windows. Like someone said, just go into the drivers and delete the brands that you know you will never buy and keep the ones you probably will.
One of the things I tell people is that with Macs the computers already know about most hardware so you don't have the hassle that you do with Windows having to install the drivers off of CDs or downloading.
As much as I hat to admit it, printing is one of those rare areas where Windows has had some longtime advantages over Mac. The driver installation, the closer integration of page setup and print dialogs, the greater flexibility in expressing page ranges. These won't come from simply acquiring CUPS, but I think it shows an indication (along with Leopard enhancements) that Apple's going after fixing its shortcomings.
Please don't say it that way. I hate to see the phrase "any OS version" followed by a list like that. ;-)
I completely agree. Why should it have to be all or nothing with these devices. I really only do 2 things on my printer anyway, print and use the card reader. Yet my HP insists on installing the photo management system, for which I already use Picasa, and the photo-editing software, for which I already use Photoshop. Why can't I just use the very basic drivers for printing and accessing the card reader--for that matter, why is there even a driver/software/stupid tray icon for the card reader? Most (if not all) USB card readers automatically appear in both OS X and Windows without drivers.
I'd really like to see some universal USB printer standards that make it possible to do basic printing without any drivers--like the way a keyboard/mouse/monitor will work. Sure you don't have access to all the programmable buttons, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about a simple I/O printer language.
Wait a sec...
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't CUPS open source? How can Apple "buy" software that essentially belongs to everyone? Or was it just freeware? In either case, if I were a linux user, I'd be pretty pissed right now. (Thankfully, I'm not.)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't CUPS open source? How can Apple "buy" software that essentially belongs to everyone? Or was it just freeware? In either case, if I were a linux user, I'd be pretty pissed right now. (Thankfully, I'm not.)
Isn't that what profiles are for or am I misunderstanding what you are after?
Well, if I understand you correctly that's basically what CUPS is (but for any sort of connection, e.g., network or direct).
The way it looks to me, Apple went with CUPS originally because it was a great solution for that very problem. It was open source under GPL, but I think Apple figured that wouldn't be a problem because only the most inane printer manufacturer would think the print driver was the source of their value-added. Apparently inane, was the standard, so Apple has now acquired CUPS so that it can alter the license to not scare away the inane printer manufacturers.
Its a great project and I'm sure it has a great engineer (or team) behind it. But there probably wasn't a reason to own CUPS if it weren't for those license issues.
Apple already owns lots of open source software. The trick with GPL licensed software though is the dual license approach. Much of the GPL projects have a dual license where the originator of the project claims complete control over the source for their own licensing purposes. That means CUPS could gather together the contributions from the community and sell them under a completely different license. With Apple acquiring CUPS now, they could turn around and do what the GPL community has been doing to the BSD community for a long time: make it alll BSD (well Apache Software License now I guess).
The "Darwin Printing System"