Apple has filed two patents that could hint to the company's intent to get rid of printer drivers.
Apple Aiming to Eliminate Printer Drivers : Read more
Apple Aiming to Eliminate Printer Drivers : Read more
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zak_mckraken
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ScrewySqrl
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The Greater Good
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[citation][nom]zak_mckraken[/nom]I'd take it a step further and eliminate printers altogether.[/citation]
That will happen. Not in the next 5 years... but maybe 20... if we're still here.
That will happen. Not in the next 5 years... but maybe 20... if we're still here.
captaincharisma
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pbrigido
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I think it would be great if drivers were embeded in a flash based storage chip on a device itself. Having a NIC (or any other add-in card) with built in drivers that were installed automatically would be a neat feature. It would save space on your OS disk and reduce the need to go and find an obscure driver from the manufacturers website. Instead of Windows searching online for drivers, it just pulls them from the device itself.
Apple Troll Master
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Apple. Redo different (for Apple life time job)(Actually Apple gain power redoing thing...).
Stole great idea and label them under our logo!
Create zombies followers, brainless since no body care from where thoses ideas come from. Anyway Apple always do it better. Rebrand 20 years old technologies under a brand new idea, be flashy. Apple create every awesome technologies! Apple make $$$ from that. No common standard, anyway other companies will have pay to follow Apple standard! Because Apple is so SMART!
Stole great idea from App store, change policy when other become too big. Create the same thing and claim "You can't publish this App anymore, Apple's App is better anyway!". Sued every companies that is in competition with us. Make patients from generic idea like a tablet must be "rectangle". ( http://www.scribd.com/doc/61944044/Community-Design-000181607-0001 ) Yeah, it's rectangle! (forget about widescreen... it's monitor anyway... tablet PC???
and every iPhone or iThing look like this) The worst antitrust EVER!
Stole great idea and label them under our logo!
Create zombies followers, brainless since no body care from where thoses ideas come from. Anyway Apple always do it better. Rebrand 20 years old technologies under a brand new idea, be flashy. Apple create every awesome technologies! Apple make $$$ from that. No common standard, anyway other companies will have pay to follow Apple standard! Because Apple is so SMART!
Stole great idea from App store, change policy when other become too big. Create the same thing and claim "You can't publish this App anymore, Apple's App is better anyway!". Sued every companies that is in competition with us. Make patients from generic idea like a tablet must be "rectangle". ( http://www.scribd.com/doc/61944044/Community-Design-000181607-0001 ) Yeah, it's rectangle! (forget about widescreen... it's monitor anyway... tablet PC???
and every iPhone or iThing look like this) The worst antitrust EVER!
plasmastorm
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Not quite, they tie it up with patents then go sue anyone who prints without them getting paid for it. Per copy!
Then they go and sue anyone making a printer, saying something like "it can print to an apple, so they have to pay us for use of our apple only printer system (driver)".
Give it time, you know they will.
pbrigido
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[citation][nom]TheCapulet[/nom]It'd be great, but it's unrealistic because of OS intercompatability. Upgrade to windows 8, dual boot Debian, use it to do swap out part diags on a broken machine using XP? You'll need new drivers for a device in every situation. But, putting drivers on a flash medium on the hardware itself would compel hardware manufacturers to get lazy with their driver development. So everything would eventually fall back on an open source community. In a perfect world...[/citation]
That's probably true. But with the capacity of flash storage, there would be plenty of space for multiple OS drivers.
The worst case scenario is that you would have a computer boot up, and all drivers would be taken care of. Then the user would have the option to choose to update their computer to the latest drivers or not.
Wishful thinking again, and in a perfect world.
That's probably true. But with the capacity of flash storage, there would be plenty of space for multiple OS drivers.
The worst case scenario is that you would have a computer boot up, and all drivers would be taken care of. Then the user would have the option to choose to update their computer to the latest drivers or not.
Wishful thinking again, and in a perfect world.
I think it would be great if drivers were embeded in a flash based storage chip on a device itself. Having a NIC (or any other add-in card) with built in drivers that were installed automatically would be a neat feature. It would save space on your OS disk and reduce the need to go and find an obscure driver from the manufacturers website. Instead of Windows searching online for drivers, it just pulls them from the device itself.
This is called a print server. Most Companies use them.
I agree that drivers on the printer, rather than just built in fonts and support for postscript, are a great idea for smaller printers although this would raise the prices of small printers that are sold at or below cost by OEMs who make money on print cartridges.
This is called a print server. Most Companies use them.
I agree that drivers on the printer, rather than just built in fonts and support for postscript, are a great idea for smaller printers although this would raise the prices of small printers that are sold at or below cost by OEMs who make money on print cartridges.
psycho sykes
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Can't they just put in some sort of a flash drive that contains the driver of the printer installed?
I've always wondered about that...
On a side note: has anyone heard about the new crystal storage by some British inventors? I can't find any information but some low-level article on a non-tech website... I'd really appreciate it.
I've always wondered about that...
On a side note: has anyone heard about the new crystal storage by some British inventors? I can't find any information but some low-level article on a non-tech website... I'd really appreciate it.
Eliminating print drivers is easy. You just make printers smart (many are already), and make them all take the same high level commands and handle them internally however they please.
Provided your high level commands address all needs, which has been done, then all printers can look exactly the same from the perspective of the OS, making a printer driver unnecessary.
If you want stupid printers, then you'd have to make them handle internal manipulations essentially the same, which could also be done because Apple has control of the hardware.
Either make the commands the same at a high level, or make low level handling the same, and you don't need drivers. Printers all need to do the same things, and it's silly they all need different data to do it. Make it the same. They don't need different command protocols for every printer. With a dumb printer, maybe lasers need something different from ink jets, but even then, just make one for each class. Three or four pieces of software is better than hundreds.
Provided your high level commands address all needs, which has been done, then all printers can look exactly the same from the perspective of the OS, making a printer driver unnecessary.
If you want stupid printers, then you'd have to make them handle internal manipulations essentially the same, which could also be done because Apple has control of the hardware.
Either make the commands the same at a high level, or make low level handling the same, and you don't need drivers. Printers all need to do the same things, and it's silly they all need different data to do it. Make it the same. They don't need different command protocols for every printer. With a dumb printer, maybe lasers need something different from ink jets, but even then, just make one for each class. Three or four pieces of software is better than hundreds.
gogogadgetliver
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legacy7955
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