Samsung Laser Printers - propietary Page Description Language? (ML-1665)
Kevin J. Cummings
cummings at kjchome.homeip.net
Mon Dec 6 06:03:52 UTC 2010
On 12/05/2010 10:22 AM, Fernando Cassia wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> I´m thinking of replacing my ages-old HP LaserJet 1100 (PCL4, PCL5, 16
> MB RAM) with a with a very affordable yet fast Samung (model ML-1665 -
> product info at
> http://ho.io/samsunglasers )
A couple of years ago, I bought a Samsung CLP-510 at a big box store.
The clinching factor was the Linux Compatible sticker on the side.
> Samsung provides propietary, binary-only drivers for Linux at this location
> http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/content/DR/201001/20100121132724343/UnifiedLinuxDriver_0.86.tar.gz
What I got was a Samsung interface to the LPR-ng interface. I installed
it without too much pain on FC5. I then upgraded to F8 and then to F10,
now to F13. It still works pretty well, both locally and remotely. Of
course, these drivers "pre-date" the newer "unified" driver.
> However, they only mention Ubuntu, no word about Fedora.
>
> I´m not very happy to use binary-only drivers, because at some point
> they might choose to discontinue them, or those binary drivers might
> have dependencies that later cannot be fulfilled (say require an older
> glibc version, older version of CUPS than present in future linux
> version, etc etc).
>
> Anyone has more detailed info on what Page Description Language do
> these Samsung printers use?
Have you visited www.linuxprinting.org and searched that sight for your
printer-to-be? It has lots of information on lots of printers, though
much of that info may be "dated".
(BTW, the entry for the ML-1665 only says: "Doorstop". Not promising.)
> I´m more saddened about the lack of understanding by consumers in
> general over the use of OPEN STANDARDS. PCL and PostScript are open
> standards -there are Free Software as well as propietary
I thought PCL was "owned" by HP, and PostScript by Adobe.
> implementations of each-, yet, all that normal users seems to care
> about is that a given device "has Linux drivers". Well, propietary
> Linux drivers with closed protocols and languages are not very good
> either. The device will become a paperweight as soon as the
> manufacturer decides to kill it by not issuing any more linux driver
> updates.
Its tougher to kill business class printers than those intended for home
use. Most lasers are business class printers.
> So, any in-depth info about what page description language do these
> Samsung ML-1665 printers use?. The Samsung web page is --of course--
> of no help.
And, sadly, www.linuxprinting.org was not much help either....
> Here, the product description:
> http://ho.io/samsunglasers
>
> FC
--
Kevin J. Cummings
kjchome at rcn.com
cummings at kjchome.homeip.net
cummings at kjc386.framingham.ma.us
Registered Linux User #1232 (http://counter.li.org)
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