CUPS Printing System Open-Source Development Has Seemingly Dried Up

[royce]

If CUPS lives, a raspberry pi can easily turn that Brother into a network printer.

Ah, it's not the network printing, but scanning that I wonder about. But yes, this is an option I might just wire up at some point for what I have right now.

[royce]

Even that is using a standard protocol on many current printers, eSCL ("Airscan"). Its supported by many vendors, and at least on my HP479fdw its working great (via SANE).

For a great overview, see this talk from LPC 2020: https://linuxplumbersconf.org/event/...ne-airscan.pdf

Thank you, I didn't know this was a thing at all. Will definitely look out for it if and when I need to replace my current unit.

[wberrier]

I saw the headline and think that some may interpret that to mean "no printing related improvements nor innovations have been coming to Linux".

As others have noted, Mr. Sweet (and others) is still busy solving problems in this domain. Check out the full "OpenPrinting" track from LPC:

https://linuxplumbersconf.org/event/7/sessions/83/#20200828

specifically "Printer Applications -The future of Printing in Linux".

[cjcox]

Open Source Developer: Look at what I made! Freedom!

Open Source Community: Great! I've got some ideas to make it even better!

Large Closed Anti-FOSS Company: Freedom is not desirable.

Open Source Community: You're wrong.

Large Closed Anti-FOSS Company: (writes number on piece of paper) How much to sell your soul?

Open Source Community and Developer: NOT FOR SALE

Large Closed Anti-FOSS Company: (opens up piece of paper)

Former Open Source Community and Dev: SOLD!

[CommunityMember]

A lot of companies still insist on a Fax.

In at least some jurisdictions a fax is considered legally binding document (although in some cases it may be required to be followed up with real paper). While there are alternatives available in some cases for some uses, fax is still the lowest common denominator that still has that legally binding status.

[willmore]

Embrace, Extend, Extinguish. Apple learned it from the best.

[iamjustalittlefox]

"It's possible Apple engineers are still working on CUPS internally" - strongly doubt that

This is what I would call a job well done, finished except it's not. CUPS was always a major pain due to dealing with printer vendors who are against of publishing specifications and let's face it Today 99.999% of the printers are network printers, you don't need cups anymore just a way to transfer your file from your computer to the printer which for better models even works by FTPing them, although it might not be convenient for everyone.

[CommunityMember]

SOLD!

Which is related to the phrase (variously) attributed to, among others, Winston Churchill, Mark Twain, or Groucho Marx which goes something like: "We have already established what you are, we are now just haggling over price".

[Till Kamppeter]

Hi, I am Till Kamppeter, leader of the OpenPrinting project (site link in my profile). I am closely working together with Michael Sweet. I am also organizer of the mentioned Microconference on Linux Plumbers, both 2019 and 2020.
If you look into my monthly news posts on the OpenPrinting web site (under "News and Events") you see in the "CUPS" sections that Apple's CUPS development is dormant and in the September news you see that I have started a (hopefully temporary) fork of CUPS on the OpenPrinting GitHub (link in the "CUPS" section of the September news). Both Michael Sweet and me have committed already some fixes there. In case that Apple does finally cease CUPS development I will continue the project together with Michael Sweet on OpenPrinting.
CUPS will still be needed in Linux. CUPS spools jobs (not all Printer Applications or native IPP printers do that), pre-filters the PDF coming from the user applications into a format the printer (or Printer Application) understands (IPP does not require that an IPP printer/server understands PDF), and shares printers over the network, also with sophisticated authentication systems like Kerberos.
CUPS will drop PPD file support soon (this is one of the major changes on the roadmap), so classic drivers consisting of PPDs and filters are not supported any more and Printer Applications are the only form to supply printer drivers.
Please refer to the Linux Plumbers Microconferences, the OpenPrinting Summit/PWG meetings (see OpenPrinting web site, "News and Events"), and my monthly OpenPrinting news posts.

Till

[Slartifartblast]

In at least some jurisdictions a fax is considered legally binding document (although in some cases it may be required to be followed up with real paper). While there are alternatives available in some cases for some uses, fax is still the lowest common denominator that still has that legally binding status.

I know that's why I mentioned it, at the other end of the scale though, something I have had many dealings with...

https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/search-fda-guidance-documents/part-11-electronic-records-electronic-signatures-scope-and-application