Michael R. Sweet is a computer scientist known for being the original developer of CUPS. He also developed flPhoto, was the original developer of the Gimp-Print software (now known as Gutenprint), and continues to develop codedoc, HTMLDOC, Mini-XML, PAPPL, and many other projects. Sweet has contributed to other free software projects such as FLTK, Newsd, and Samba. He co-owned and ran Easy Software Products (ESP), a small company that specialized in Internet and printing technologies [1] and is now the Chief Technology Officer of Lakeside Robotics Corporation.
Sweet graduated in Computer Science at the SUNY Institute of Technology in Utica-Rome. He then spent several years working for TASC and Dyncorp on real-time computer graphics. After releasing a freeware tool "topcl", in 1993 Sweet set up Easy Software Products (ESP) and developed the ESP Print software. He started work on the CUPS software in 1997 and in 1999 released it under the GNU GPL license along with the commercially licensed ESP Print Pro. [1]
Apple included CUPS in its macOS operating system and in February 2007, they purchased the copyright to the CUPS source code which, unusually for an open source project, was wholly owned by ESP. Apple also hired Sweet to continue the development of CUPS. [2]
While working for Apple, Sweet spent six years as the chair of the Printer Working Group (PWG). [3]
Sweet left Apple in December 2019 to start Lakeside Robotics Corporation. Sweet continues to be secretary of the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) working group, [4] a designated expert for IPP and the Printer management information base (MIB) for the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), [5] and is active in printing standards development within the PWG. He has written several books including Serial Programming Guide for POSIX Operating Systems, OpenGL Superbible, and CUPS (Common Unix Printing System). [1]
The Secure Shell Protocol (SSH) is a cryptographic network protocol for operating network services securely over an unsecured network. Its most notable applications are remote login and command-line execution.
Bonjour is Apple's implementation of zero-configuration networking (zeroconf), a group of technologies that includes service discovery, address assignment, and hostname resolution. Bonjour locates devices such as printers, other computers, and the services that those devices offer on a local network using multicast Domain Name System (mDNS) service records.
Virtual Network Computing (VNC) is a graphical desktop-sharing system that uses the Remote Frame Buffer protocol (RFB) to remotely control another computer. It transmits the keyboard and mouse input from one computer to another, relaying the graphical-screen updates, over a network.
The Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) is a specialized communication protocol for communication between client devices and printers. It allows clients to submit one or more print jobs to the network-attached printer or print server, and perform tasks such as querying the status of a printer, obtaining the status of print jobs, or cancelling individual print jobs.
CUPS is a modular printing system for Unix-like computer operating systems which allows a computer to act as a print server. A computer running CUPS is a host that can accept print jobs from client computers, process them, and send them to the appropriate printer.
In computers, a printer driver or a print processor is a piece of software on a computer that converts the data to be printed to a format that a printer can understand. The purpose of printer drivers is to allow applications to do printing without being aware of the technical details of each printer model.
Netatalk is a free, open-source implementation of the Apple Filing Protocol (AFP). It allows Unix-like operating systems to serve as file servers for Macintosh computers running macOS or Classic Mac OS.
Jordan K. Hubbard is an open source software developer, authoring software such as the Ardent Window Manager and various other open source tools and libraries before co-founding the FreeBSD project with Nate Williams and Rodney W. Grimes in 1993, for which he contributed the initial FreeBSD Ports collection, package management system and sysinstall. In July 2001 Hubbard joined Apple Computer in the role of manager of the BSD technology group, during which time he was one of the creators of MacPorts. In 2005, his title was "Director of UNIX Technology" and in October 2007, Hubbard was promoted to "Director of Engineering of Unix Technologies" at Apple where he remained until June 2013.
This article lists communication protocols that are designed for file transfer over a telecommunications network.
The Line Printer Daemon protocol/Line Printer Remote protocol is a network printing protocol for submitting print jobs to a remote printer. The original implementation of LPD was in the Berkeley printing system in the BSD UNIX operating system; the LPRng project also supports that protocol. The Common Unix Printing System, which is more common on modern Linux distributions and also found on macOS, supports LPD as well as the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP). Commercial solutions are available that also use Berkeley printing protocol components, where more robust functionality and performance is necessary than is available from LPR/LPD alone. The LPD Protocol Specification is documented in RFC 1179.
Gutenprint is a collection of free-software printer drivers for use with UNIX spooling systems, such as CUPS, LPR, and LPRng. These drivers provide printing services for Unix-like systems, RISC OS and Haiku.
The Printer Working Group (PWG) is a Program of the IEEE Industry Standard and Technology Organization (ISTO) with members including printer and multi-function device manufacturers, print server developers, operating system providers, print management application developers, and industry experts. Originally founded in 1991 as the Network Printing Alliance, the PWG is chartered to make printers, multi-function devices, and the applications and operating systems supporting them work together better.
iPrint is a print server developed by Novell, now owned by Micro Focus. iPrint enabled users to install a device driver for a printer directly from a web browser, and to submit print jobs over a computer network. It could process print jobs routed through the internet using the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP).
Easy Software Products was the vendor who originally invented the Common Unix Printing System (CUPS) and HTMLDOC software. It was founded near Washington, D.C. in 1993 and was located in Morgan Hill, California. ESP sold CUPS to Apple Inc. in 2007, but still developed and sold its HTMLDOC software until its closure.
lp0 on fire is an outdated error message generated on some Unix and Unix-like computer operating systems in response to certain types of printer errors. lp0 is the Unix device handle for the first line printer, but the error can be displayed for any printer attached to a Unix or Linux system. It indicates a printer error that requires further investigation to diagnose, but not necessarily that it is on fire.
The Berkeley Software Distribution or Berkeley Standard Distribution (BSD) is a discontinued operating system based on Research Unix, developed and distributed by the Computer Systems Research Group (CSRG) at the University of California, Berkeley. The term "BSD" commonly refers to its open-source descendants, including FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, and DragonFly BSD.
InterCon Systems Corporation was founded in April 1988 by Kurt D. Baumann and Mikki Barry to produce software to connect Macintosh computers in environments that were not Macintosh-exclusive. At the time, there was no real concept of the Internet and there was still a question of whether the TCP/IP protocols or OSI protocols would be adopted widely. Over the next 9 years, the company grew from three employees to over 100 and sold software in the US, Europe and Japan.
Wi-Fi Direct is a Wi-Fi standard for wireless connections that allows two devices to establish a direct Wi-Fi connection without an intermediary wireless access point, router, or Internet connection. Wi-Fi Direct is single-hop communication, rather than multi-hop communication like wireless ad hoc networks. The Wi-Fi Direct standard was specified in 2009.
AirPrint is a feature in Apple Inc.'s macOS and iOS operating systems for printing without installing printer-specific drivers.