[Leaplist] Re: A letter to my Windows friends...

[Dan Cherry]

Jim Hartley wrote:
> 
> 
> Chris wrote:
>> You are asked to support Windows when you have to pay for virus
>> protection. You are asked to support Windows with every piece of
>> spam you have to delete. You are asked to support Windows in the
>> hidden costs of your Internet providers wasting time and resources
>> dealing with the garbage that Windows brings to the Internet.
>>
>> The things that can be done "Only In Windows" are very often things
>> that should not be done. Period. There's a reason some of these things
>> can only be done in Windows - they're just a bad idea to start with.
>>
> I just ran into another #%^&**(&^*&^ Only Windows situation, this one 
> hardware - a printer. My wife and I just bought two new computers, both 
> of them "bundle" deals from Office Depot with big rebates as long as you 
> get EXACTLY the bundle they are selling (yeah, yeah, I know about 
> rebates, but believe me, any rebate outfit that tries to hassle my wife 
> will be SORRY, she can get downright vicious about these things). I 
> asked about not taking the monitor, since I already had one, but it 
> would have cost $50 MORE to NOT GET the monitor (does this stuff make 
> any sense?).
> 
> Anyway, she got a nice (low-end but reasonably nice) HP printer, while 
> my bundle came with a Canon which is rated PAPERWEIGHT on the Linux 
> printer database. Why, why, WHY do they do these things?
> Fortunately, I chose to get an already obsolete Pentium4 to save a 
> couple of hundred bucks, and it still has LPT and serial ports so I can 
> take my wife's old LPT-connected HP printer (she can't use it, she 
> insisted on getting the "latest thing", so she HAS TO use a 
> USB-connected printer).
> 
> And before somebody starts telling me I REALLY should have gone 64-bit, 
> I don't care. After using a 185mHz PI for years, a 3gHz P4 is going to 
> feel like warp 9.7. Got a set of Centos 4.x CDs I burned last summer, 
> somehow I doubt I am going to use that free Vista upgrade coupon ... and 
> if my wife gets any funny ideas about a Vista upgrade, I'm just going to 
> tell her to install it herself!
> 
> Jim Hartley
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> Leaplist at leap-cf.org
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check out Turboprint.  iirc, they're in Germany, but they provide some 
superb drivers for Linux to handle a large number of printers that don't 
fare too well under Linux with open source drivers.  I've been using it 
for several years to drive a usb canon printer.

I think it was about $30 (roughly, after the euro conversion). You can 
test it to be sure it works before buying a key (the demo mode puts a 
banner in the middle of your printouts, until you purchase a key).  The 
Key has been good for all revisions.  I've upgraded about a half dozen 
times, and the same key has worked.

You do have to specify 32 bit or 64 bit when you download, but I think 
the same key works for either (I've only needed the 32bit, so I'm not 
positive about that).  Again, iirc it handles about 30-40 printers from 
different manufacturers - maybe more now.

It's one of the very few (maybe the only) piece of software I've bought 
for Linux, and it definitely has been worth the price.

-- 
Dan Cherry
dscherry (@) bellsouth.net

Finding a solution to a problem doesn't solve the problem...
Implementing the solution solves the problem.