Printer Drivers Lacking

**mindbend** · January 24th, 2003, 11:50 PM

What's up with Apple's crappy printer driver support?

My HP 1220c is not supported out of the box in any version of OS X so far as I know. I can easily download drivers from HP, but that kills the whole plug and play experience that Apple brags about. Also, when I occasionally reinstall my OS from scratch for whatever reason, I forget about the stupid printer drivers and wonder for three hours why I can't print.

Likewise, my Epson (I never learn...note to self, never buy Epson again) C60 used to work in OS X, but hasn't since 10.2.3. I'm trying to manually install the "latest" drivers from Epson.

So, that's two for two improperly supported and very common printers. How freaking hard can it be to maintain a list of printer drivers? Especially if the source company already has the driver, just put it in the freaking OS!

End rant. Feel free to ignore this thread.

**Satcomer** · January 25th, 2003, 12:17 AM

Don't worry about manufacturers lack of attention and lack of basic support for older hardware. Get this.

**mac-blog** · January 25th, 2003, 01:56 PM

Apple can only include drivers licensed to them from the makers of the printers. You should learn the difference between problems caused by Apple and problems cause by other third party venders, it would help make sure you direct your rants to the correct places (in other words, not Apple in the case of printer support).

And just to take this a step further, we shouldn't forget that so far the biggest bug to come with the release of 10.2.x was actually caused by the software supplied by HP.

Maybe you should start a new thread with a new rant directed at those who are really giving you grief.

**mindbend** · January 25th, 2003, 02:42 PM

If Apple claims near universal support for printers and doesn't deliver, that is Apple's fault. Nuff said.

On another note, it turns out I had a bad cable (red faced). Strangely, I could print text-only pages form Textedit (with bad cable), but it would die on color bitmaps. I would have switched cables earlier, but it seemed like I was getting somewhere since the printing started, then choked.

Apple's built-in support for the C60 works excellently thru Jaguar. My bad on that one. I still stand by my 1220c comment, since Apple includes a broken driver in the OS for that model. That IS Apple's fault.

**mac-blog** · January 25th, 2003, 03:07 PM

Originally posted by mindbend
If Apple claims near universal support for printers and doesn't deliver, that is Apple's fault. Nuff said.

Actually that isn't Nuff said. I've never heard these claims. Where does Apple say it has either universal or near universal support for printers? I have always looked for supported printers, and would never just grab any old printer from say... CompUSA, and expect it to just work.

If you can point me to where Apple claims this, then I owe you a heart felt apology.

**DeltaMac** · January 25th, 2003, 03:52 PM

Sensing plugged-in hardware (simple plug-n-play) is not the the same as hardware support for equipment features, that support comes solely from the manufacturer, and Apple unfortunately does not make any printers. I provide phone tech support for PeeCees (my job) I don't know how many times a day I refer callers to manufacturers web sites for updated printer software or patches, especially for WinXP. Support from other companies is similar for Macs, you can't always rely on internal OS support for 3rd party hardware. But just where is this claim of universal support for printers, anyway? Apple has a list of supported hardware, I guess, but it's nowhere near complete

**mindbend** · January 25th, 2003, 04:02 PM

You guys are taking my posts way too literally. It was simply a rant about printer support. Of the three printers I use (HP 1220c, Lexmark Laser and Epson C60), one of them is not supported even thought Apple's OS print center claims it is (1220c?shows a driver number, does not say "driver not installed" like other printers that are autosensed). That is an Apple error no matter how you want to argue about it.

The C60 error was MY FAULT. Bad cable. Works great now. Actually, I take that back, the printer itself is a piece of junk, but at least it is printing. I will never buy Epson again. Third bad Epson printer in a row for me. Noisy as hell too. Oops, new rant starting, must...stop...now...

The Lexmark has always worked since 10.1., no additional drivers necessary.

The "near universal support" was a throw away comment based on the numerous reviews, articles and general commentary on OS X from the media and user base. I am not going to provide any support for the comment, because that's all it was.

I am moving away from this subject now, Have a nice day.