Speaker
Description
WSL allows to run most Linux applications also under Windows, including Printer Applications.
Printer Applications are the new printer driver format under Linux, daemons which emulate a driverless IPP printer and pass on the jobs to the actual printer. They especially keep legacy printers working which are not driverless by themselves.
As we already have converted all free software classic printer drivers into Printer Applications one can this way print with all printers which work under Linux also under current Windows.
This opens the possibility to keep legacy printers which are abandoned by Microsoft and by their manufacturers working under Windows and saving them from the hungry trash bin.
Also Microsoft plans in a future version of Windows to drop support for classic printer drivers and only support driverless IPP printers, in their new "Windows Protected Print" architecture.
In this lightning talk we will show that in a few simple steps (no compiling required!) one can put new life into one's old printers again.
What audience can learn
Here you learn just a simple trick to save legacy printers under Windows, when driver support gets discontinued, running printer drivers for Linux under WSL.
Biography
Till is leader of OpenPrinting since it was founded in 2001, introduced the CUPS printing system in Mandrake Linux in 2000 working at MandrakeSoft and with this and a lot of evangelism (booths, talks, workshops) made the other distros also switch to CUPS, since 2006 printing maintainer at Canonical, co-organizing annual meetings with the Printer Working Group (PWG), since 2008 every year mentoring in Google Summer of Code, doing everything to make printing on Linux and alike operating systems "just work". With his OpenPrinting work Till has many years of experience with presenting on conferences and participating in their organization. Till is also fellow of the Linux Foundation.
Summary
Under Windows driver support for older printer models is often discontinued after a few years, turning usable printers into e-waste, and also Microsoft wants to go driverless-IPP-only, stopping driver support altogether. Here a simple trick based on WSL and Linux printer drivers is shown.
| Difficulty level | Begineer |
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