On Tue, Jul 17, 2001 at 10:39:48AM -0500, Brian wrote: > Is it just me or is it possible to equate every "I need a cheap dedicated > piece of hardware to do...." phrase to "yeah, a 486 running linux will do > that and a few other things too"? Offhand, I can't think of a time that this formula didn't work for me, unless you start talking about situations where the cheap dedicated piece of hardware isn't readily available in a PC-hostable form. (e.g., I've never used a linux box as a printer because they just don't make PCI print drum cards.) In all fairness, though, there are cases where the dedicated solution is so much cheaper and easier than a custom linux setup that it just doesn't make sense to break out the 486 other than for sheer hack value. Tivo, for instance. (But that's really only half an example, given that Tivo runs linux...) > Example... we switched from 486s running DOS print capturing > to HP print servers because people tried to sit down and work on the 486 > print servers. "Why isn't Windows 95 running? How do I check my e-mail > on this? Maybe if I reboot this thing.... hey, why did our printer stop > working?" Wire the reset button to deliver voltage to the user instead of the CPU. Disconnect the mouse or replace it with one that has nice, big shiny metal contacts^Wbuttons to click. The problem will solve itself before long. > What sort of network capabilities does CUPS have? Specifically, if I have > a Novell 4.11 server farm what are the possiblities of using CUPS as a > print server? I know CUPS speaks legacy lpr/lpd protocols and the new Internet Printing Protocol and I'm pretty sure it can take SMB print requests directly without needing samba to translate. Given that, I suspect it's Novell-friendly, but let's see what google says... Huh. Slashdot story that I very vaguely remember, from Oct. '99 at http://www.slashdot.org/articles/99/10/01/1632200.shtml which has a good summary of CUPS in the blurb and a comment mentioning that Novell was involved in developing IPP... Nothing directly relevant and grep doesn't find the word "novell" anywhere in the installed docs. Hmph.