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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?"
Up here in The Great White North we send everything by dog sled.
Speech: Free
Beer: $699.00
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.
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.
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.
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.
Method of processing duck feet
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.
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.
*sigh* back to work...