On Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:15:26 +1100
Jake Anderson <jake@vapourforge.com> wrote:

> I think the question at hand is what does a print driver do now that 
> needs 160MB worth of driver that they didn't do 10 years ago.
> Printers put ink on paper, that task hasn't changed that much in 10
> years.

Yes... But now they can develop (and sell) a printer that can't print.
They'll just include the firmware/character tables/patches etc in the
driver package. That's at least a couple of MB extra for each driver.

Of course you couldn't use a parallel interface, uploading megabytes of
driver firmware each power-up would take too long (even more impossible
is serial printing... remember that?)

So, now about half of the "printer driver", is what belonged inside
the printer in the first place.

John
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