E-Postage for Linux?

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?"

Comments

Oh neat!

[karmavore]

Up here in The Great White North we send everything by dog sled.

Emulation...

[jpsowin]

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.

Re:Thoughts...

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't believe the UPS or FedEx software comes in a *n?x variant, so the answer is basically, "No."

The FedEx server runs on Windows, but they give that machine to you with all necessary software installed.

Communication with the server is done over a TCP socket, using an open protocol (the protocol is weird, but documented). You could definitely submit jobs into the system in an automated way - we have a system at work that does this.

I'm not sure if printer drivers would be a problem on Unix. FedEx gave us a Zebra printer and said to use the standard / text-only printer driver in Windows. It needs to be shared using SMB, but Samba should be able to handle that. If this doesn't work, you could probably hook the printer up to the machine FedEx gives you.

Re:Thoughts...

[Anonymous Coward]

I do believe both UPS and FedEx, as well as quite possibly USPS support HTTP/XML -based interfaces to their software. You just have to search through their site hard enough, or probably much easier - call their tech divisions.

Cold day in hell

[Deagol]

I was a stamps.com customer for a couple of years. Since then, I've become a 99% Linux convert, running only a couple of apps under VMWare when needed. The system really was very nice, worth the small monthly fee (plus the postage looks pretty cool). Last time I checked, Stamps.com had a Windows and Mac client. I emailed them (maybe 2-to-3 years go) about a Linux version, to which they (of course) politely replied that it wasn't in the forseeable future.

From a (somewhat ignorant) corporate standpoint, I can understand why. Digital postage is pretty close to digital money. And while I don't know the cryptogtaphy involved, I assume it's a proven system (after all, this is the USPS), as least on paper, if not in implementation. 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. I just can't see this happening solely due to a mistrust of the underlying OS. Granted, a skilled Windows "hacker" can do the same thing with debuggers under Windows, but everyone "trusts" Windows' security/obscurity.

I guess it wouldn't hurt to inquire again, just to let them know that a former customer would return if they had a native Linux version.

Re:Cold day in hell

[mfarver]

Digital postage is pretty close to digital money.

Not really... in the case of stamps, each stamp is serial numbered, the bar code reader on the sorting line just checks if that serial number has already been used and rejects envelopes. New serial numbers are only activited when they are issued. Its actually easier to detect fraud then with the current stamps or postal meters.

Mark

Re:Thoughts...

[tzanger]

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.

GUI does not imply !(batchable||scriptable)

[borgboy]

...or otherwise unusable through automation. Many widely used, widely emulated GUI applications are usable through a command line or script interface.

Re:GUI does not imply !(batchable||scriptable)

[Stephen Samuel]

...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.

Colder and colder

[fm6]

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.

Re:Thoughts...

[Dan Ost]

You don't need a driver to print via an Eltron (or any Zebra) printer.
You can send print strings straight over a serial cable or, if your
printer is networked, simply open a socket to it. We generate FedEx
labels on both Linux and Solaris (for Intel). It's custom code, but
creating print strings is essentially no different than creating
valid XML or HTML. It's just another mark up language.