Windows, std OS in Hell

From: Geoff Reed <geoffr_at_zipcon.net>
Date: Fri Nov 9 07:19:01 2001

At 01:20 AM 11/9/01 -0800, you wrote:
> >What confused me for a long time, and is currently scheduled for again this
> >evening, is that Apple printers in many cases are NOT TCP/IP, but ethertalk
> >(same physical layer, different protocol). Some of the bridges and routers
> >pass TCP/IP or EtherTalk, but not both, then add to that the native network
> >blind character of a Wintel box and I am walking in a foggy forest.
> >
> >Tonights fun, Apple Laserwriter 16/600 vs W98se, film at 11.
>
>I've been digging at this problem for a few weeks, and I almost don't
>believe the answer. Windows machines apparently won't print directly to
>network printers. (obviously NT will, ditto maybe w2k, but not 95 or 98).
>The story I hear is that Microsoft wanted to sell more NT servers, so they
>pulled the support for standard protocols like LPR (something like that)
>forcing users to print from a workstation to a NT server, which contains
>the protocols to talk to the network printers directly. Why did windows
>users allow MicroSoft to get away with crap like that?
>
>BTW the sane alternative appears to be SAMBA, but it still is really wrong.
>HP has wizard software that gets around this somehow, but Apple can't even
>remember it was in the printer business 4 years ago.

Nope, WFW3.11, Win95 and Win98 were designed as "small office / home
operating systems" and were never given support for LPR protocol as you
weren't expected to see that in a SOHO / Workgroup or Home setting. (In
yet another previous incarnation I was a support tech for POS at Microsoft
[Personal Operating Systems] )
Received on Fri Nov 09 2001 - 07:19:01 GMT