Printing Trends in Linux (O'ReillyNet)

Printing Trends in Linux (O'ReillyNet)

Posted Sep 25, 2007 1:56 UTC (Tue) by hmh (subscriber, #3838)
In reply to: Printing Trends in Linux (O'ReillyNet) by hmh
Parent article: Printing Trends in Linux (O'ReillyNet)

Indeed. That was nearly-FUD crap, and from an unexpected source, too. It makes me sad.

I should apologise for this one. Upon a second reading of the article, I have to say that "nearly-FUD crap" was quite undeserved. It is true that printers from some manufacturers have been dead easy to set up and use for at least two years, but that's about the only point I disagree with in the article. And I do have to agree that's mostly because I consider printers with closed-source or missing drivers as a reason to never get any consumer products from that manufacturer, so I never have anything like that around, not even at work.

On the other hand, I still think binary drivers are a BAD idea, even if they come with the source and a proper license (i.e. a DFSG-compliant one, IMO). Frankly I don't expect open drivers to remain as necessary to printer manufacturers as they are now once binary blobs are easy to deploy.

There are precious few printer manufacturers with a very good track record on open drivers, and I don't want to see any of the binary-only-land happy ones get any more market share from those who like open, DFSG-compliant "free as in beer" drivers.

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