Apple Acquires CUPS

A happy ending for that guy.

Rich.

so wait, that means they could finally use him to make the iPhone more accessible to developers?? Maybe? eh, what am i dreaming for...

It still sounds like some kind of supermodel SWAT team to me, but good for him. I love it when people who write some boring, unassuming utility get a payday.

Good for him! Sounds like an excellent situation.

I wonder... with Apple purchasing CUPS, and getting so cozy over the past few years with GIMPPrint / Gutenprint, and then also with them pushing Rendezvous/Bonjour out into the PC world... is this all part of some single underlying strategy regarding simplifying printing? I find printing, particularly network printing, vastly simpler on Macs (as long as the hardware is supported) than on Windows. CUPS is so much nicer than the hodge podge of annoying hacks that the industry calls printer drivers on Windows.

But in terms of the overall simplicity of printing... it still has a ways to go. In principle, non-network printing doesn't really need to be any more complex than hooking up a monitor (which could also be simpler gaah), and network printing via Bonjour ought to be much simpler, too, a la the level of complexity of finding information on websites using Google, etc.

I hope they carry on support for other UNIX/*nix OS as well.

I use a variety of printers and paper sizes on both Macs & Windoze - I'd like to see the print dialog allow switching of sizes & orientation with closing & switching to the printer setup, then back. I hate to say it, but for me printing to Windoze is more flexible...

I use cups on a mixed Linux / OS X network and it is far superior than a windows print server in those circumstances. Don't confuse the underlying print server with the dialogues presented to you by your OS / application.

How does this affect people like me who just plug in a simple printer to print out normal text/graph documents.

Probably not at all.

So this move seems to help Apple integrate document management and computer graphics for Apple, UNIX and Microsoft Windows. Getting to be one big family. Although they had the license now they also have the company.