[opensuse] Mac OS X and Linux Product inter-compatibility?
The IT world is faced with 3/4 main desktop operating systems, each with its own quirks and therefore each has hardware which will or wont work on it. I would specifically like to find out, as a non user of two of the OS's, if any of the OS's can be likened to another in terms of functionaility ie how they address and work with hardware. The main operating systems(OS's) I talk about are Windows, Linux, Apple oe Macintosh and of course UNIX. We are all painfully aware that the Windows software does much of the hardware management, whilst Linux, relies more on the hardware to perform, mostly independantly from the OS and I would assume that UNIX is similar. I cannot comment on Mac as I have never owned/used one. Hardware, specifically printers, include a list of operating systems which the product is known to work. For example purposes: Windows and Mac OS X are supported and no mention is made of Linux or UNIX. I would like to purchase the product and see that it is not supported in the OS I prefer to run ie Linux. Can I assume that a product that works on Mac OS X will also work, perhaps with limited functionaility, on Linux, eventhough it was not stated on the box? Curious George :) Tnx -- ======================================================================== Using SuSE 9.2 Professional with KDE and Mozilla Mail 1.7.13 Linux user # 229959 at http://counter.li.org ======================================================================== -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
You should *not* assume that every Mac hardware works with Linux. You recommend you to search in the Open-Source hardware databses to find out + if possible bring Linux LiveCD to the computer shop to test the hardware you're going to buy with Linux. Fortunately, hardware is cheap nowadays, which means that even if you have done a mistake it won't cost too much to replace it. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
The IT world is faced with 3/4 main desktop operating systems, each with its own quirks and therefore each has hardware which will or wont work on it. I would specifically like to find out, as a non user of two of the OS's, if any of the OS's can be likened to another in terms of functionaility ie how they address and work with hardware. The main operating systems(OS's) I talk about are Windows, Linux, Apple oe Macintosh and of course UNIX. Linux, Mac OSX, and Unix are all very closely related in that they are all unix-like operating systems. Windows is all alone in an inferior world by itself, as an operating system. But your question relates to hardware and
We are all painfully aware that the Windows software does much of the hardware management, whilst Linux, relies more on the hardware to perform, mostly independantly from the OS and I would assume that UNIX is similar. I cannot comment on Mac as I have never owned/used one. Your understanding is not quite correct... let me explain. All operating systems manage hardware resources and unix-like OSs are certainly no exception. What Windows does is to use software to emulate actual hardware functions so that proprietary *windows only* hardware can be built that will only run on windows. This is an evil monopolistic practice put in place by greedy M$ to force the use of their OS. This is the primary reason I will never use M$ products again. ever. (Win modems, and Win printers are exasperating examples). I purchase platform independent hardware, and I
Hardware, specifically printers, include a list of operating systems which the product is known to work. For example purposes: Windows and Mac OS X are supported and no mention is made of Linux or UNIX. This is also an evil M$ monopolistic technique (some call it FUD, fear uncertainty, and doubt) to make the public suspect that ONLY the listed OSs will work with the hardware... when in fact the hardware is completely
I would like to purchase the product and see that it is not supported in the OS I prefer to run ie Linux. All you need to do is to look through the list of supported drivers for the
On Saturday 27 January 2007 06:33, Hylton Conacher(ZR1HPC) wrote: that is another story. Linux runs on *many* different hardware platforms. Until recently Mac OSX only ran on a PowerPC platform... now it also runs on Intel based hardware. The cool thing about unix-like systems is that the user doesn't need to be concerned necessarily about the platform... for instance printing... Common Unix Printer Services handles the job... and CUPS is CUPS is CUPS. ---a little more further down. purchase hardware supported specifically by unix-like systems... HP is an excellent vendor of Linux and Mac friendly hardware. platform independent or has drivers available for it that support every platform. Again for Linux printers HP is the vendor of choice bar none... IMHO. printer you are interested in. You will not be disappointed in the HP line of laser printers... I have three different HP laser printers and two different HP color jet printers and they all work great with Linux... which is all I use by the way. I have never had a problem with an HP printer.
Can I assume that a product that works on Mac OS X will also work, perhaps with limited functionaility, on Linux, eventhough it was not stated on the box? Again... that depends on whether a driver for that printer is available. To my knowledge only windoze was ever brazen enough to coerce vendors into manufacturing a printer that would only print on a windoze machine... with closed (proprietary) drivers. Many printers these days are going usb and work well on any machine that supports usb. I can print from my Mac OSX box to any of my HP printers on the network... works great.
I print using three different techniques... I'll tell you about all three. 1) Network Printer. The HP Laserjet4 is plugged directly into the switch (RJ45 connector) and my linux boxes print to it via cups as a network attached printer. (my favorite) 2) Network Printer attached through a linux cups host. The HP Laserjet 4L is parallel attached to one of my headless Suse servers running cups. All other linux boxes print to that printer as a hosted cups printer. The down side here (if at all) is that the host machine has to be up and running to use the printer. 3) Network Printer attached via miniature print server. The HP Deskjet 870cxi is parallel attached via a printer server (a small box about the size of a VHS tape) in my case the HP JETDIRECT EX Plus. This little box allows you to convert any standard parallel printer into a network printer. And HP's print server supports several protocols... I use tcp/ip. Honestly, the best way to print these days is directly to a network printer attached through a hub or preferably through a switch. Many machines these days do not even have parallel printer ports installed. None of my production workstations have an attached printer. All printing is network printing. But that's my shop. -- Kind regards, M Harris <>< -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On 1/27/07, M Harris <harrismh777@earthlink.net> wrote: [...]
exasperating examples). I purchase platform independent hardware, and I purchase hardware supported specifically by unix-like systems... HP is an excellent vendor of Linux and Mac friendly hardware.
This is true for printers, but unfortunately not for scanners. I have a client that recently switched from WIndows to Linux and he have a very nice HP scanner, which is unfortunately not supported at all under Linux. He even phoned HP in Germany and they told him that no HP scanner is supported under Linux. (HP might not support scanners, but there are a number of HP scanners that are supported by the SANE project. Unfortunately the list is not very long) We are currently getting him a new Epson scanner as Epson actually have thier own support for 90% of their current scanners HP printers are generally very well supported and they even have an open-source project for their Office-Jet range of multi-functions. (Why they don't support their scanners is beyond me as the multi-functions includes a scanner and that works very good). To get back to the core of the topic: When I go and buy hardware, I don't try to find stuff that says "Linux supported" on the box or even on the vendor's site. If I do happen to notice it on the box, I am surprised. The CD's that comes in the box normally ends up in the trash or used as coasters. If they include some documentation, then they might end up in my CD drawer. When I need to buy new hardware, I first go the hardware supported lists for Linux and then get the model numbers of supported hardware and then go and find that hardware to buy. For printers, see http://www.linuxprinting.org For scanners, see http://www.sane-project.org/ For other hardware, see the Hardware Compatibility List for the distro you use (http://cdb.suse.de/?LANG=en_UK for suse) In my experience with printers and scanners: Laser printers : HP Multi-functions: HP ink jet printers: Epson scanners : Epson (Brother also seems to have their own drivers - never used them though) For other hardware, google is your friend. -- Andre Truter | Software Consultant | Registered Linux user #185282 Jabber: andre.truter@gmail.com | http://www.trusoft.co.za ~ A dinosaur is a salamander designed to Mil Spec ~ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Sunday 28 January 2007 04:14, Andre Truter wrote:
On 1/27/07, M Harris <harrismh777@earthlink.net> wrote: [...]
exasperating examples). I purchase platform independent hardware, and I purchase hardware supported specifically by unix-like systems... HP is an excellent vendor of Linux and Mac friendly hardware.
This is true for printers, but unfortunately not for scanners. I have a client that recently switched from WIndows to Linux and he have a very nice HP scanner, which is unfortunately not supported at all under Linux.
Rant on: I saw the other writer praising HP, especially for its printer compatibility. Well, I'll tell you, I wasted my money on an HP 1020 Laser Printer, because there is no way to get this Windows bitch to print anything from Linux. At least not from my machine by me. As long as HP and others make Win-printers, Win-scanners, Win-modems, and so on, I don't support anything they make. I am sick to death of this s----! Unfortunately, I don't know where to go--without HP printers and things like that, there is nowhere. I guess you can see that I'm mad. I suppose that this should be OT, but I would bet that nobody reads the OT list, so I'm venting here. Rant off. --doug -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Monday 29 January 2007 01:29, Doug McGarrett wrote:
On Sunday 28 January 2007 04:14, Andre Truter wrote:
On 1/27/07, M Harris <harrismh777@earthlink.net> wrote: [...]
exasperating examples). I purchase platform independent hardware, and I purchase hardware supported specifically by unix-like systems... HP is an excellent vendor of Linux and Mac friendly hardware.
This is true for printers, but unfortunately not for scanners. I have a client that recently switched from WIndows to Linux and he have a very nice HP scanner, which is unfortunately not supported at all under Linux.
Rant on: I saw the other writer praising HP, especially for its printer compatibility. Well, I'll tell you, I wasted my money on an HP 1020 Laser Printer, because there is no way to get this Windows bitch to print anything from Linux. At least not from my machine by me. As long as HP and others make Win-printers, Win-scanners, Win-modems, and so on, I don't support anything they make. I am sick to death of this s----! Unfortunately, I don't know where to go--without HP printers and things like that, there is nowhere. I guess you can see that I'm mad. I suppose that this should be OT, but I would bet that nobody reads the OT list, so I'm venting here. Rant off.
--doug Hi .
I print every day to Brother laser printers from Linux via a pair of WiFi Print servers they work a treat in fact if anything is going to frigg me about on the printing side it is usually one of the windBloZe boxes that the rest of the tribe in the office use brother 2030 work nicley Pete . -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Monday 29 January 2007 11:36, Peter Nikolic wrote:
I print every day to Brother laser printers from Linux via a pair of WiFi Print servers they work a treat in fact if anything is going to frigg me about on the printing side it is usually one of the windBloZe boxes that the rest of the tribe in the office use brother 2030 work nicley
I can wholeheartedly recommend Brother HL-5140. Inexpensive, beautiful print quality, and it works perfectly with Linux. Bryan *************************************** Powered by Kubuntu Linux 6.06 KDE 3.5.2 KMail 1.9.1 This is a Microsoft-free computer Bryan S. Tyson bryantyson@earthlink.net *************************************** -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Hello, On Jan 27 14:33 Hylton Conacher(ZR1HPC) wrote (shortened):
Hardware, specifically printers, include a list of operating systems which the product is known to work. For example purposes: Windows and Mac OS X are supported and no mention is made of Linux or UNIX.
Buy a PostScript printer because this works independent form the operating system or buy at least a printer which supports PCL5e. For basic information see http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Purchasing_a_Printer_and_Compatibility and http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/OpenPrinting/Database/SuggestedPrinters For details see http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Information_for_Printer_Manufacturers_Regarding_L... By the way 1: If you like to print, scan, and copy regardles of the operating system even via network, think about a solid all-in-one printer/scanner/copier device with a built-in (color) PostScript level 3 printer. Normally one can scan directly on such a big and fat network-printer/scanner/copier and specify scan resolution and image file format (e.g. PDF) and all the other scanning options directly at the device and in particular one can specify an e-mail address to which the device will send the scanned images so that one will receive them as mail attachment according to what was specified as image file format. This way of operating is much more convenient for the user because when you would use a SANE (scanning software for Linux) driver, you would have to specify all the scanning parameters on your workstation by using a SANE user-frontend. But your workstation is normally far away from the network scanner so that you would have to place a sheet in the network scanner and post a big red note on the network scanner that you are currently using it for scanning so that others know what is going on and don't remove your sheet, then walk back to your workstation to specify the scanning parameters and start the scan and finally you would have to walk again to the network scanner to fetch your sheet and remove your note and walk back to your workstation. Of course this way of operating is much better for the physical health of the company staff ;-) By the way 2: Of course solid PostScript printers are expensive but there are models which are really worth the money (which does not mean that any PostScript printer is worth its money). I think that regardless how you decide, you have to pay the matching "price" either way. Either you pay once for a solid PostScript printer and never again care about which operating system in which version may support it or not, or you buy a cheap printer and then you must care again and again which operating system in which version supports it with which driver in which version to which extent. If your time costs (almost) nothing, buy a cheap printer ;-) Kind Regards Johannes Meixner -- SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, Maxfeldstrasse 5 Mail: jsmeix@suse.de 90409 Nuernberg, Germany WWW: http://www.suse.de/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Hylton Conacher(ZR1HPC) wrote:
The IT world is faced with 3/4 main desktop operating systems, each with its own quirks and therefore each has hardware which will or wont work on it. I would specifically like to find out, as a non user of two of the OS's, if any of the OS's can be likened to another in terms of functionaility ie how they address and work with hardware. The main operating systems(OS's) I talk about are Windows, Linux, Apple oe Macintosh and of course UNIX.
We are all painfully aware that the Windows software does much of the hardware management, whilst Linux, relies more on the hardware to perform, mostly independantly from the OS and I would assume that UNIX is similar. I cannot comment on Mac as I have never owned/used one.
Hardware, specifically printers, include a list of operating systems which the product is known to work. For example purposes: Windows and Mac OS X are supported and no mention is made of Linux or UNIX.
I would like to purchase the product and see that it is not supported in the OS I prefer to run ie Linux.
Can I assume that a product that works on Mac OS X will also work, perhaps with limited functionaility, on Linux, eventhough it was not stated on the box?
Curious George :)
Tnx Thanks all. Whilst there was a single ranty about HP printers not working, further investigation on linux printing showed that it only worked mostly and not perfectly.
I have learned much and whilst HP is my choice of laser printer, I will perservere with the epson deskjet here, for a while or while the hair lasts :) You wouldn't perhaps know of anyone flogging re-conditioned ones in our area Andre ie a 5/6L or even 4L? -- ======================================================================== Using SuSE 9.2 Professional with KDE and Mozilla Mail 1.7.13 Linux user # 229959 at http://counter.li.org ======================================================================== -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
participants (8)
-
Alexey Eremenko -
Andre Truter -
Bryan S. Tyson -
Doug McGarrett -
Hylton Conacher(ZR1HPC) -
Johannes Meixner -
M Harris -
Peter Nikolic