3 ms·

In case anybody doesn't get the reference, printer driver trouble is what initially motivated Stallman to come up with the idea of free software and ultimately

In case anybody doesn't get the reference, printer driver trouble is what initially motivated Stallman to come up with the idea of free software and ultimately the GPL and the FSF.

DaSHacka 2y ago
I can't believe the entire FOSS ecosystem essentially stemmed from printer issues, and we _still_ don't have a mainstream FOSS printer firmware that removes DRM and tracking dots (and whatever else they do nowadays) akin to OpenWRT, but for printers. We have fully open source hardware AND software _3D_ printers capable of printing working guns, but we can't improve the process of squirting ink on paper so it's not universally abhorred?
- rekoil 2y ago
  It does always sound really crazy because in our minds 3D is more complex than 2D, but in reality 3D printing is actually really really simple, it's basically just 3 motors, a heat block, and an extruder, that's pretty much it. Whereas 2D (inkjet) printing has all of the above (minus one motor), and actually comes with a few non-trivial non-printing related expectations as well, like loading and expelling a print surface (often many in one print), optionally flipping said print surface (and this requires that ink has dried as well) and colour processing to map computer colours to real-world colours.
  - chongli 2y ago
    It's actually even more complicated than that. Modern printers include a raster image processor (RIP) [1]. This specialized software converts vector graphics, text, and pixel-based images into a raster dot pattern that controls the print head. The individual dots that get printed can't be varied in size or brightness, so the variations in image tone are controlled by the density of the dots in the raster pattern. This is called halftone [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raster_image_processor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raster_image_processor [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halftone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halftone
  - account42 2y ago
    Yeah but those problems were all solved decades ago.

In case anybody doesn't get the reference, printer driver trouble is what initially motivated Stallman to come up with the idea of free software and ultimately the GPL and the FSF.

DaSHacka 2y ago

I can't believe the entire FOSS ecosystem essentially stemmed from printer issues, and we _still_ don't have a mainstream FOSS printer firmware that removes DRM and tracking dots (and whatever else they do nowadays) akin to OpenWRT, but for printers. We have fully open source hardware AND software _3D_ printers capable of printing working guns, but we can't improve the process of squirting ink on paper so it's not universally abhorred?

rekoil 2y ago
It does always sound really crazy because in our minds 3D is more complex than 2D, but in reality 3D printing is actually really really simple, it's basically just 3 motors, a heat block, and an extruder, that's pretty much it. Whereas 2D (inkjet) printing has all of the above (minus one motor), and actually comes with a few non-trivial non-printing related expectations as well, like loading and expelling a print surface (often many in one print), optionally flipping said print surface (and this requires that ink has dried as well) and colour processing to map computer colours to real-world colours.
- chongli 2y ago
  It's actually even more complicated than that. Modern printers include a raster image processor (RIP) [1]. This specialized software converts vector graphics, text, and pixel-based images into a raster dot pattern that controls the print head. The individual dots that get printed can't be varied in size or brightness, so the variations in image tone are controlled by the density of the dots in the raster pattern. This is called halftone [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raster_image_processor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raster_image_processor [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halftone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halftone
- account42 2y ago
  Yeah but those problems were all solved decades ago.