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Apple Licenses CUPS

Posted by pudge on from the two-steps-forward-one-step-back dept.

bmeteor writes: "Short and very sweet: CUPS is licensed by Apple. A boon for both Apple and GNU." CUPS (Common UNIX Printing System) is a system based on the Internet Printing Protocol for standardized printing on Unix systems. That's nice, but when can I print over the network to my Epson inkjet, like I can in Mac OS 9 with USB Printer Sharing?

11 of 217 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I hope CUPS has gotten better... by Snowfox · · Score: 4, Informative
    The last time I looked at CUPS (Admittedly, 2-3 years ago), it was some Pretty Awful Software.

    Is it better now than it was then?

    I only tried it for the first time about 6 months ago. My system was printing to my Epson Stylus 860 within about five minutes of installing the .deb.

    Setup is easy and the quality is on par with Windows' output.

  2. Interoperability Rocks! by col.+Fudge · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Any attempt by any company to introduce new technologies that are based on standards and that provide a means to work well with any and every platform should be considered a plus for the industry. We must get past the platform specific train of thought and focus on systems that make the platform you choose simply a personal choice and not one that will limit your ability to be productive.

    IPP is the way of the future. It provides a mechanism to connect any and every printer in the world together with any delivery mechanism. The possibilities of providing a common printing mechanism are astounding. Imagine doing away with low quality fax machines and being able to send a secure and private document around the world directly to someone's desk. Imagine sending a birthday card to Grandma right to her living room. Imagine printing from a wireless device while walking down the street to a printer at a print shop ready to pick up!

    Forget snail mail and faxing IPP is the only way to go!

  3. you can print over the network if you ... by ssklar · · Score: 4, Informative

    just do the steps listed in the hint at Mac OS X Hints.

    --
    Non impediti ratione cogitationis.
  4. CUPS vs OMNI by Chris+Pimlott · · Score: 4, Informative

    I just recently became aware of OMNI, a unix printing system by IBM based off Ghostscript. It seems very comprehensive, they list support for *610* printers.

    What struck about this is that I thought CUPS was pretty well-agreed upon by the major players as a common unix (the CU in CUPS) standard. How does OMNI compare with CUPS? Or do they perhaps represent different levels of the whole printing system and do they compliment one another?

    1. Re:CUPS vs OMNI by nbvb · · Score: 5, Informative

      As my (admittedly small) brain recalls, the OMNI drivers are an offshoot of the OS/2 project.

      OS/2 had some of the best printer support I'd ever seen (at the time.)

      By OS/2 Warp 4 (Merlin), the Omni print driver was there for just about every printer you could get your hands on...

      This is just like IBM -- make some seriously high-quality software, but never tell anyone about it...

      _sigh_

      --NBVB

    2. Re:CUPS vs OMNI by listen · · Score: 5, Informative

      AFAIK....

      Omni is a set of drivers. It competes with the standard gs drivers and gimp-print.

      CUPS is a queueing system. It competes with LPRng, PDQ, etc.

  5. Not so good for GNU by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Apple is only licensing CUPS from the copyright holder (Easy Software Products) to get around the GNU restrictions, so a proprietary version can be distributed without source.

    "The standard CUPS distribution will be provided with Apple's open source Darwin operating system, while an enhanced version of CUPS with Apple's Aqua user interface will be provided with MacOS X."

    1. Re:Not so good for GNU by SirRichardPumpaloaf · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The Aqua-fied version probably wouldn't be much use to non-OS X users, so I don't see how that's much of a loss to GNU. Apple will probably want to keep the underlying stuff in sync between Darwin and OS X, though, just for their own convenience. If they make any changes to the unix-level parts that get distributed with Darwin they'll have to make the source available. I guess we'll see how it turns out, but for the moment I don't see how more widespread adoption of an improved open printing protocol could be thought to be bad.

    2. Re:Not so good for GNU by printman · · Score: 4, Informative

      Well, as one of the companies involved in the deal, I can say that the whole purpose of this licensing arrangement is to satisfy the lawyers, and Apple has been working with us to make sure that the standard CUPS distribution 1) builds out of the box for OS X/Darwin, and 2) contains as much functionality as possible (e.g. USB support will appear in the near future, etc.)

      The only thing that won't be part of the open-source CUPS is the Aqua interface and PDF RIP technology, both of which already have suitable open-source replacements in the Linux and *BSD worlds.

      --
      I print, therefore I am.
  6. It's my trumpet and I'll blow it if I want to by nagora · · Score: 4, Interesting
    That's nice, but when can I print over the network to my Epson inkjet, like I can in Mac OS 9 with USB Printer Sharing?

    You could try the alpha version of my own printing system which I've written in Perl after three attempts to get CUPS to work ended in failure. I use it to print across the network to my Epson S.P. 1290.

    TWW

    --
    "Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
  7. Plenty good for GNU by cduffy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Funding Free Software development by selling non-Free licenses is a perfectly reasonable and good action; the revenues from this, remember, will in large part go to pay the folks who write the Free version.