Is LPRng Project Still Alive? 46
deeptrout asks: "The LPRng distribution hasn't been updated since mid-2004, the LPRng project website hasn't been updated since late 2004, and the LPRng mailing list has been dead since the April of 2005. What's going on? Is the project unofficially dead? Has anyone heard any news from Patric Powell, the author of LPRng? It'd be a shame if that is true. I really like LPRng's simple and yet robust reimplementation of the LPD model that allows to keep the configuration for an entire site with hundreds of hosts and dozens of printers in a fairly simple text file. What are we supposed to do now? Switch to CUPS? Something else?"
did you try mailing the mailing list, first? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:did you try mailing the mailing list, first? (Score:3, Funny)
What do you think?
Re:did you try mailing the mailing list, first? (Score:2)
Re:did you try mailing the mailing list, first? (Score:3, Funny)
Yes, but all of the LPR developers were killed off Unix sysadmin who was driven into madness after configuring, troubleshooting, configuring, troubleshooting lpr onto his systme.
noooaaa (Score:4, Funny)
Simply because it has been the de facto standard for a decade? Of course not.
Re:your sig (Score:1, Offtopic)
So your project to trap all the "grammar trolls" is rather misconceived - if you find spelling or grammar corrections distract you that much, then use your mod points when you have them to mod those posts off topic. Otherwise, don't be childish.
Your
Re:your sig (Score:1)
Re:noooaaa (Score:2)
Cups isn't perfect and it certainly has not been any kind of defacto standard for a decade.
Re:noooaaa (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:noooaaa (Score:2)
If I go dig out my RedHat or Slackware disks from '96, will I find CUPS on them? I don't remember having CUPS on them. I remember both LPRng and CUPS coming along after that. (But my memory may be fading with advanced age. :) )
Re:noooaaa (Score:5, Interesting)
The main problem is that shared printers randomly appear and disappear from the configuration. CUPS does not allow one to statically configure anything (very bad). One option I've found is to hardwire the config files with the exact parameters that I want, then make the files unwritable.
I'm tired of clients calling me saying their shared printer has "disappeared". My solution? Install LPRng on all these customer configurations. Since installing LPRng, I've never had a single call about printer sharing.
Re:noooaaa (Score:1)
If you never get calls from users upset about network printing then your users must be scientists, or they're not network printing at all.
LPR must go, (for the transmission of critical data) the same way telnet and FTP did. And at least THEY had authentication...
Re:noooaaa (Score:3, Informative)
Re:noooaaa (Score:2)
A decade? That interesting since CUPS 1.0 didn't ship until late 1999 [slashdot.org]. That's only a little over five years since the 1.0 release. Not to mention that distros weren't in a hurry to make it part of their default installs. The first distro to support CUPS out of the box was Mandrake 9.1, IIRC, and that didn't ship until early 2003.
Re:noooaaa (Score:2)
But out-of-the-box CUPS definitely extends further back than that: Mac OS X has used CUPS as the basis for its print services since Jaguar (10.2), which was released in August 2002.
incorrect (Score:2)
What are we supposed to do now? (Score:1)
Why? Has a bug been discovered?
Well, Gee! (Score:4, Insightful)
Sounds like it's dead. What's your take?
Re:Well, Gee! (Score:1)
Yep, sounds dead.
Re:Well, Gee! (Score:2)
Or you could try it, if you wanted.
Re:Well, Gee! (Score:2)
Well, I switched... (Score:5, Insightful)
So, coupled with needing to look into it for my then-current job anyway, since there was a requirement of "no unencrypted traffic" when something could be considered "privileged", as some print jobs to the network printers could be (don't ask, it wasn't physical so much as potential sniffers on the network), I finally looked into CUPS. I decided to convert the least-critical machine on my home network to CUPS under the belief that I could always switch back by copying over a working config. You know what? That same night, I converted all the other *nix machines at home. It was that nice, that easy, that painless. Aside from CUPS already knowing about all my printers, sitting off on a stand-alone 3-port print server, it also was able to make better use of their features.
So, I'm now a happy CUPS user, and even had an easier time last week getting an HP LaserJet 1320 working on my *nix boxes (both simplex and duplex, draft, medium, and high qualities) than I did even getting the drivers and one printer instance onto my gf's XP SP2 laptop. (After the first, I just tarred up the modified files from
If you like LPRng, and it works for you, stick with it. For my money, I'm much happier with CUPS. And as a bonus, with all the print filters for a lot of common formats already there, I don't need to go through different steps to print PDFs, graphics, etc, I just lpr them.
Re:Well, I switched... (Score:2)
(debian/unstable, which may be my problem.)
Re:Well, I switched... (Score:2)
Re:Well, I switched... (Score:2)
Ubuntu 5.10 - neither printer works - KyoceraMita Ti820 (didn't expect it to really but has a ppd file linuxprintingguide) and a canon bubblejet 255 Sp (also has a ready made ppd file).
Nil.
Won't even confirm a connenction to stupid thing.
No test page will come out.
Re:Well, I switched... (Score:2)
Re:Well, I switched... (Score:2)
Have now tried the archives. No luck but may have given me a hint.
A deeper serach shows other people having ubuntu printing issues.
Eg http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDownUnder/BOFs/Print ingRoadmap?highlight=(print) [ubuntu.com]
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDownUnder/BOFs/Print ingRoadmap?highlight=(print) [ubuntu.com]
May have lucked onto something in my archive search though - looks like I may need Gho
Oh no, it's still going strong! (Score:3, Funny)
cups vs lprng (Score:1)
sure, I've never had large installs of it (max 10 printers and 100 staff). But it has an almost perfect record ime
GGPS with a LDN (Score:1, Funny)
Psst... this is a joke (Score:2)
What's this fear of death coming from? (Score:2, Interesting)
FreeBSD is maturing! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:What's this fear of death coming from? (Score:2)
Yep, still perfect.
Re:What's this fear of death coming from? (Score:2)
external circumstances change (Score:4, Insightful)
The project could be very mature, beyond everyone's expectations. However, like those who meet Dracula, people may find that it sucks their life-blood away, and the best way to make it stop is to put a stake through its heart.