[oclug] [OT] ease of use (printing)

[Jon Earle]

CUPS has a wizard?  Where?

The KDE print manager gives me the choice of _five_ systems to use:
"CUPS", "Print through an external program (generic)", "LPR (Standard BSD
print system)", "Generic UNIX LPD print system (default)" and "RLPR
environment (Remote LPD servers)".  I have printers installed both locally
(at home) and on the network (at work).  Which of these five systems do I
want to use?  The last one doesn't appear to work at all, and the LPR
(...) and Generic UNIX LPD .. appear (to me) to be much the same thing.

Further, if I want a CUPS driver for anything other than the most mundane
of printers, I have to buy it from the CUPS manufacturer.  I use Xerox
Docuprint and HP Laserjets (both postscript) and Epson Inkjets at work,
and a Brother laser at home (both non-postscript).  AFAICT, none are
supported under the CUPS that is shipped as part of the Debian distro.

I dunno ... I just feel really confused by the whole printing thang.

Jon


On Wed, 27 Nov 2002, Ben Hall wrote:

> I think KDE's printer setup is absolutely fantastic.  They have a nice
> wizard setup for CUPS printers, very Windows-like, it's even a bit
> easier to use than the actual CUPS web setup (http://localhost:631)
>
> It's really too bad that Gnome hasn't shared/copied/borrowed/stolen the
> KDE print architecture.  It's very robust and easy to use.  Has been
> since version 2.x.  (My only real beef is that if, like me, you're not
> running KDE just running kprinter takes quite a while for it to load the
> needed libraries.)
>
> For GTK 1.x there was gtklp, which allowed you to easily select CUPS
> printers as well as select 1/2/or 4-up, but it's not as complete as
> KDE's offering, and I don't think it's being ported to GTK2.x.
>
> Thankfully, everyone seems to be slowly standardizing on CUPS (even
> Apple uses it for OS X).   Hopefully printing under Linux will be all
> cleared up within the next year.
>
> Ben
>
>
> Brad Barnett wrote:
>
> >Erm.
> >
> >Under my new shiny, fully installed Debian system, I do this.
> >
> >1) go to linuxprinting.org, and make sure the printer is compatable
> >2) buy the printer, come home, plug the printer in
> >3) run "printtool", select the printer driver
> >4) do a test print if I want
> >
> >What's the problem?  Is it really such a big deal, because the dialog pops
> >up for you under windows, and you have to click on the gnome foot to get
> >it with Linux?
> >
> >There is even a "fix staired text" option, that makes your life easy.  All
> >we need is to have things standarized, so that the driver for the printer
> >can be installed with one click.
> >
> >That is:
> >
> >1) put the cd in the drive
> >2) the CD auto runs (already possible with existing tools), or click it
> >3) drivers are installed
> >
> >We don't need an auto-driver dialog.  That's why Windows sucks.  We _do_
> >need an accepted standard, though, so manufacturers can have installers on
> >CDs (or you can download the installer).
> >
> >
> >
>
>
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---
Jon Earle

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