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Wait a minute, wasn't I already installing proprietary drivers in the early nineties? And also, those "standard" protocols, weren't those just simpler versions
by sverhagen 4y ago
Wait a minute, wasn't I already installing proprietary drivers in the early nineties? And also, those "standard" protocols, weren't those just simpler versions of this proprietary stuff, using the (yes, this part was standardized) pc ports like LPT or RS-something? The fact that they were documented doesn't make it all that much less proprietary, does it? Still, scummy nonetheless.
- imglorp 4y agoYeah and those drivers did all the rendering on PC before sending it to the printer as a bitmap: another way to make the printer cheaper. Good office ones spoke PS and let you offload the PC immediately.
- userbinator 4y agoI'd be sufficiently happy if a printer just accepted writing bmp/gif/jpg/png files to it, because then monsterous proprietary printer drivers wouldn't be necessary. "WinPrinters" were supposed to solve this, since Windows' GDI could do the rasterisation itself (and for non-Windows, similar libraries exist), but clearly that didn't work out. Cheaper, dumber printers with simpler firmware are not a bad thing at all, both for the user and the manufacturer. Unfortunately the latter are more interested in hostile "smart" crap.