ReactOS 0.4.4 Delivers On Windows Printing Support

[phoronix]

Phoronix: ReactOS 0.4.4 Delivers On Windows Printing Support

ReactOS 0.4.4 shipped on Thursday as the latest release for this open-source operating system seeking to implement Windows binary compatibility support...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=ReactOS-0.4.4-Released

[nomadewolf]

USB support would be way more important IMO, but, it's still an improvement, and there's also stuff that can be reused for the USB, i hope.

[AsuMagic]

USB support would be way more important IMO, but, it's still an improvement, and there's also stuff that can be reused for the USB, i hope.

I'm fairly sure the parallel port printer support is only their first step to support more printers, since I'm fairly sure parallel port printers are muuuch simpler to support than USB ones.

[ruthan]

They just need to show some progress.. thats all, if they need to show this as important feature, project has very small chance to be successful.

[stiiixy]

I remember parallel printing being fairly straight forward, so long as you knew about the various I/O configs if you ran in to hardware conflicts on pre-2000's OS's.

If I recall, USB-based printing is now bound to the computer, effectively emulating hardware processing of the printer in the drivers which need to be written per device, and per OS. Or it might have been some emulation layer in there. Can't remember 8-D

Still, the team has it working, so I guess they're working on a print spool mechanism and parallel is the easiest route to get that layer in fast. Good idea on the surface. Must have had a spare one floating about.

[cb88]

I remember parallel printing being fairly straight forward, so long as you knew about the various I/O configs if you ran in to hardware conflicts on pre-2000's OS's.

If I recall, USB-based printing is now bound to the computer, effectively emulating hardware processing of the printer in the drivers which need to be written per device, and per OS. Or it might have been some emulation layer in there. Can't remember 8-D

Still, the team has it working, so I guess they're working on a print spool mechanism and parallel is the easiest route to get that layer in fast. Good idea on the surface. Must have had a spare one floating about.

Indeed... the next step is network printing. USB printing... is potentially not worthwhile, and networkable laser printers are a dime a dozen.

[schmidtbag]

I personally never found much difference in either parallel port or USB port printing.

But, I have found that network printing can sure makes things a lot easier, especially if you do Google Cloud Print (where other devices don't even need drivers for the printer). Obviously though network printing has its disadvantages if you intend to do something unusual, like print on a medium with unusual dimensions, or a medium that isn't just plain paper.

[nomadewolf]

I'm fairly sure the parallel port printer support is only their first step to support more printers, since I'm fairly sure parallel port printers are muuuch simpler to support than USB ones.

I sure hope it only the first step... (i think i speak for everyone on this)
I just didn't quite understand why did they prioritize paralel port over USB given modern day needs... but if you say paralel is way simpler, it makes sense.

[commodore256]

You know, by the time ReactOS reaches 1.0, using NT 5.x (Win2k, XP or Server 2k3) will be like using OS/2 is right now.


As much as I want a Libre NT based OS, I'm actually OK with this. Sure I'd like it to eventually evolve and get Windows 7 features, but even if it plateaus at a Stable version of Windows Server 2003, I'm fine with it being a legacy OS. Hell, I use FreeDOS. I already consider Windows a legacy OS because of the direction Windows is going after Windows 7 and MS sunsetting support for it.

[Niarbeht]

Obligatory 'Yes, but can it play Crysis?"

:P