AW: [Desktop_printing] Role of CUPS and error handling

[Paul Tykodi]

Hi Johannes,

I'm not against freedom of choice at all. I think it works very well within
the Linux community because there is an organization, which makes decisions
on the minimum "commonality" that needs to exist for an OS distribution to
claim it is a version of Linux. Once a version of Linux kernel is released,
it is available for anyone to customize as they see fit.

Since at this time AFAIK printing support in Linux (other than the original
lp or lpr spooling capability of UNIX) is not currently included in the
Linux kernel, it is a facility for which every Linux distribution provider
can make their own decisions about tools and configuration.

This wide range of options in how common tools (like CUPS) are accessed and
configured across different distributions makes it very difficult for
manufacturers of printers to know what is required of them (in terms of both
PPD files or other drivers to support their devices and to measure the
required resource commitment for appropriate levels of technical assistance)
so that some choose not to provide any approved Linux support at all.

I am suggesting that I believe the global Linux community would be well
served if some minimum level of functional "commonality" could be brought to
the process of printing under Linux so that all the great tools could be
made available as part of a defined Linux "system" rather than having an
impressive tool set but no defined framework (each user creates their own)
in which to deploy them.

Best Regards,

/Paul
--
Paul Tykodi
Principal Consultant
TCS - Tykodi Consulting Services LLC

Tel/Fax: 603-343-1820
Mobile:  603-866-0712
E-mail:  ptykodi at tykodi.com
WWW:     http://www.tykodi.com

> Hello,
> 
> On Mar 30 09:01 Paul Tykodi wrote (shortened):
> > That issue would be the tenet that Linux is first and foremost about
> choice.
> 
> Do I understand you correctly that you are somehow against
> freedom of choice?
> 
> > When Linux Printing support is then compared to the printing support in
> > other prevalent desktop OS's (Apple & Microsoft OS Products)
> 
> Don't compare the free development in free software with
> the very much controlled proprietary software development.
> 
> Obviously there is no "freedom of choice problem"
> when there is nothing to choose.
> 
> 
> Kind Regards
> Johannes Meixner
> --
> SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, Maxfeldstrasse 5      Mail: jsmeix at suse.de
> 90409 Nuernberg, Germany                    WWW: http://www.suse.de/