Agreed. I started trying to print things on Unix systems about 1976 and I'd still be pulling my hair out if I didn't deliberately keep it short for just this reason.
Just before I left for vacation I tried to print from the latest Firefox on Linux. The results were initially lpd forking continuously, then files disappearing into a black hole. I searched and searched in the FAQs, knowledge-bases, etc. and I found plenty of people with the same problem. The answers were allways "install these few dozen of packages" and the results were always "that didn't help". I can print from every other utility I've tried on the system, why would Firefox require anything to be done? --jim ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ronald G. Minnich" <[email protected]> To: "Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs" <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, July 26, 2005 12:07 PM Subject: Re: [9fans] Newbie question on printing > I still think the one thing Windows really nailed is printing. Browse for > a print server. Find the printer by name. Oh, server says, you don't have > a driver? Here's one from the print server. Done. You're up. None of this > browsing of an out-of-date pile of files to find the printer that almost, > but not quite, matches the printer. > > Overall, I've never used anything I like quite as much as that. Not even > OSX can compare -- OSX is just about as painful as any standard Unix for > adding a new printer. > > I'm sure that, being Windows, there are lots of flaws and holes, but > overall it's less painful than anything else I've seen. > > ron >
