On Fri, 17 Sep 2010 15:10:45 -0700, per...@pluto.rain.com wrote: > Polytropon <free...@edvax.de> wrote: > > > I would like to have ONE thing that is used for printing, and that > > does support ALL printers ... > > Isn't that exactly what CUPS is supposed to be?
Obviously not. Look at the dependencies, the bloat, and the overall complicatedness of installing a printer. Also, the documentation situation could be better. When dealing with CUPS, foomatic and Gutenprint also enter the field, as well as hp*d stuff that is not included (and needs additional attention). There needs to be lots of action besides CUPS to get it working for certain printers. Try - with CUPS - to install a dotmatrix printer on a parallel port that is currently NOT connected. Last time I checked, this was not possible. Under one point of view you are right: CUPS has been become a quite standard assumption for many programs. If you install them, they will install CUPS (even if you're already running apsfilter or nothing, just pure system's lpd). I see this when printing from Gimp: "/usr/local/bin/lpstat: Unable to connect to server", clearly a CUPS message. This also shows that it doesn't integrate with system services that well, but its use seems to be hardcoded into programs. >From this opinion, you might get the impression that I don't like CUPS. You are right. But that's no problem as I don't have to use it. :-) I would LOVE to accept CUPS as a versatile part of the FreeBSD infrastructure, if it just wouldn't be that bloated, complicated, generally accepted as a default (in that case, it would have the potential of maybe becoming part of the base system), and finally abandoning the point of view that is has to cater "Windows"-typical kinds of thinking - ununderstandable, illogical. Of course I assume that you know that printer manufactureres that build home consumer crap are not interested in following established standards and recommendations, so THEY are the primary cause of trouble with printers. This is not CUPS's or FreeBSD's fault. -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ... _______________________________________________ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org"
