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I run lpd on a raspberry pi to share my printer. I used to share it to Windows hosts with samba but then I realized Windows supports lpd printers. (As does Mac
by asveikau 6y ago
I run lpd on a raspberry pi to share my printer. I used to share it to Windows hosts with samba but then I realized Windows supports lpd printers. (As does Mac and anything Unix-like.)
I am probably 20 years late in saying this, but I honestly don't know why cups is a thing. lpd works fine and has always struck me as simpler. It's smaller with fewer dependencies. This config is way more complicated than mine. Any time people talk about Unix printing they always assume you mean cups.
- hedora 6y agoI don’t think LPD supported auto discovery or printer-specific configuration dialogs. Cups is a bit too complicated for my taste though. Some settings live in the print dialog, others at localhost:631 (which password does it want, again?), and some are only accessible in /etc.
- bluGill 6y agoIf you only have one printer CUPS doesn't do much. If you have hundreds of printers it starts to make sense. Though they system we have at work where you print and then go to whatever printer and sign in makes more sense. The printout isn't there when you arrive, but at least it isn't on some printer in a different city.
- kstrauser 6y agoLPD was awesome for sending a file, as-is, to a pre-configured printer. CUPS is awesome for changing things on the fly, like color vs. black-and-white or two-sided printing, or for giving clients enough information about the printer that they can automatically configure the correct driver.