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E-Postage for Linux?

Posted by Cliff on from the penguins-and-mailmen dept.

tyen asks: "While it's not dead yet (shades of Monty Python), Internet postage on Linux appears to be missing. The biggest player's software is Windows-only, and the other players mimic this requirement. You would be amazed how many businesses will dedicate a computer to printing off postage and shipping labels, why pay an annoying Microsoft tax for such an appliance application? Besides, these Windows-based solutions are heavily GUI-centric, and any integration into Linux-based automated processes would be unacceptably brittle. Has anyone successfully set up their business to print off e-postage from Linux or any other Open Source platform?"

4 of 35 comments (clear)

  1. Emulation... by jpsowin · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I doubt there is one available at this point. However, you may very well be able to emulate the software under WINE or (probably easier) Crossover Office. Yes, before someone jumps on me, they are built on the same code but I have noticed that apps run better (and faster) on Crossover.

  2. Re:Thoughts... by tzanger · · Score: 5, Interesting

    All the thermal printers I've used with shipping computers have used pretty much standard Epson or HP-GL graphics modes. Set up a generic Epson printer with weird-ass margins and you're set.

  3. Re:GUI does not imply !(batchable||scriptable) by Stephen+Samuel · · Score: 3, Interesting
    ...or otherwise unusable through automation. Many widely used, widely emulated GUI applications are usable through a command line or script interface.

    Yeah, but we're talking about Windows here. It's not that MS-Windows apps aren't capable of doing scripting -- just that there seems to be something of a mindset in the windows world that just doesn't want to go there.

    --
    Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
  4. Colder and colder by fm6 · · Score: 3, Interesting
    However, the thought of "evil hackers" having low-level access to the system calls, snooping at the system would probably keep the CEOs up at night.
    Windows doesn't do a particularly good job of hiding system calls. Anyway, a well-written cryptography application doesn't care who intercepts the data it sends, or how. There's a school of thought that says that opening up an encryption application on all levels actually enhances security, because it makes it easier for third parties to verify the vendors claims.

    This is about support, nothing more. I'm suprised how many Slashdotters don't understand the costs of adding support for a platform to a product. I've worked on major projects where it was a big deal that we supported three platforms, and the choice of the third platform was a matter of major infighting. And this was in big companies with a lot of cash to throw around. I'm suprised that stamps.com has the resources to support two platforms.