Hello,

I have customer who purchased a pair of Lexmark x5150 multi-function
printers.
They attach to PCs via USB, and work fine from windows. I told them
not to even bother having me try to get them printing from their SCO
505 application.

So, they asked for a recommendation to replace one or both of the
Lexmarks.
They need color printing for PC applications, and they could use
copy/scan
functions for Windows, but it's not a requirement.

And I want is something that will let me pass control commands from
the
HPLaserJet or inkjet interface scripts. My preference would be a
network printer accessed via netcat, but the customer uses FacetWIN,
which makes it pretty easy to reach windows attached printers from
SCO.

I'm finding it harder to discern from the marketing blurbs what is,
and is not, a windows-only printer.

Do you have anything in mind that you like and recommend for this type
of application?

Best to all
Dan Martin

In article <56fe3a2b.0311180927.2410d01c@posting.google.com >,
Dan Martin <dcmartin@affinitycorp.com> wrote:
>Hello,

>I have customer who purchased a pair of Lexmark x5150
>multi-function printers. They attach to PCs via USB, and work
>fine from windows. I told them not to even bother having me try
>to get them printing from their SCO 505 application.

Well if you had them install something like an HP print server
that uses TCP/IP then every computer they have could use the
printers including the SCO system. It's pretty easy.

>And I want is something that will let me pass control commands
>from the HPLaserJet or inkjet interface scripts. My preference
>would be a network printer accessed via netcat, but the customer
>uses FacetWIN, which makes it pretty easy to reach windows
>attached printers from SCO.

Why not use netcat. It works well.

>I'm finding it harder to discern from the marketing blurbs what is,
>and is not, a windows-only printer.

If you look at the printer spec and you see that it supports
DOS and often Apple, then you know it's not a windows only printer.


--
Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com

Thank you for your reply, Bill.

bv@wjv.comREMOVE (Bill Vermillion) wrote in message news:<HoL3IF.22y3@wjv.com>...
> In article <56fe3a2b.0311180927.2410d01c@posting.google.com >,
> Dan Martin <dcmartin@affinitycorp.com> wrote:
> >Hello,
>
> >I have customer who purchased a pair of Lexmark x5150
> >multi-function printers. They attach to PCs via USB, and work
> >fine from windows. I told them not to even bother having me try
> >to get them printing from their SCO 505 application.
>
> Well if you had them install something like an HP print server
> that uses TCP/IP then every computer they have could use the
> printers including the SCO system. It's pretty easy.
>
Agreed. I've found it impossible to do this with HP's PPA printers,
and, if I understand the Lexmark support technician, The x5150 is
Lexmark's answer to PPA. ie, the printer is incapable of doing
anything, including printing re-directed text (from unix or DOS),
unless there is an operating system specific driver.


> >And I want is something that will let me pass control commands
> >from the HPLaserJet or inkjet interface scripts. My preference
> >would be a network printer accessed via netcat, but the customer
> >uses FacetWIN, which makes it pretty easy to reach windows
> >attached printers from SCO.
>
> Why not use netcat. It works well.
>
I was hoping to use netcat. The only downside is the modest expense
associated with the print server, but the payback is in time
saved in setting things up, and not being dependent on a specific PC
running
for the printer to be operational. I like netcat.

> >I'm finding it harder to discern from the marketing blurbs what is,
> >and is not, a windows-only printer.
>
> If you look at the printer spec and you see that it supports
> DOS and often Apple, then you know it's not a windows only printer.

No mention of DOS, but surprised to see that it works w/Apple's OS X.

Thanks again, Bill. Still curious if anyone has recently installed an
inkjet
printer capable of printing from SCO, using netcat or otherwise, and
if they liked the model enough that they'd recomend it to others.

Regards,
Dan

"Dan Martin" <dcmartin@affinitycorp.com> wrote in message
news:56fe3a2b.0311190828.539feb3b@posting.google.c om...
> Thank you for your reply, Bill.
>
> bv@wjv.comREMOVE (Bill Vermillion) wrote in message
news:<HoL3IF.22y3@wjv.com>...
> > In article <56fe3a2b.0311180927.2410d01c@posting.google.com >,
> > Dan Martin <dcmartin@affinitycorp.com> wrote:
> > >Hello,
> >
> > >I have customer who purchased a pair of Lexmark x5150
> > >multi-function printers. They attach to PCs via USB, and work
> > >fine from windows. I told them not to even bother having me try
> > >to get them printing from their SCO 505 application.
> >
> > Well if you had them install something like an HP print server
> > that uses TCP/IP then every computer they have could use the
> > printers including the SCO system. It's pretty easy.
> >
> Agreed. I've found it impossible to do this with HP's PPA printers,
> and, if I understand the Lexmark support technician, The x5150 is
> Lexmark's answer to PPA. ie, the printer is incapable of doing
> anything, including printing re-directed text (from unix or DOS),
> unless there is an operating system specific driver.
>
>
> > >And I want is something that will let me pass control commands
> > >from the HPLaserJet or inkjet interface scripts. My preference
> > >would be a network printer accessed via netcat, but the customer
> > >uses FacetWIN, which makes it pretty easy to reach windows
> > >attached printers from SCO.
> >
> > Why not use netcat. It works well.
> >
> I was hoping to use netcat. The only downside is the modest expense
> associated with the print server, but the payback is in time
> saved in setting things up, and not being dependent on a specific PC
> running
> for the printer to be operational. I like netcat.
>
> > >I'm finding it harder to discern from the marketing blurbs what is,
> > >and is not, a windows-only printer.
> >
> > If you look at the printer spec and you see that it supports
> > DOS and often Apple, then you know it's not a windows only printer.
>
> No mention of DOS, but surprised to see that it works w/Apple's OS X.
>
> Thanks again, Bill. Still curious if anyone has recently installed an
> inkjet
> printer capable of printing from SCO, using netcat or otherwise, and
> if they liked the model enough that they'd recomend it to others.
>
> Regards,
> Dan

I just installed an HP5650 ink jet on an old 5.0.2 host system. The 5650
has a Centronics connector as well as USB, so hooking it up was no trouble,
and it works great printing text files. If you are so inclined, you can
even dig up the PCL 3+ codes on HP's web site (although, unfortunately, not
under the 5650, but the codes from similar printers are the same). It's
about $150, a bit more pricey than the old, under-$100 HP3820, which also
worked, but which, of course, has been discontinued (go for it if you can
find one, though).

Generally, I've found that the key to determining if a printer will work
with Unix is whether or not it has built-in fonts, which you can discover
from the detailed specs. No built-in fonts=No work with Unix; Built-in
fonts=Works with Unix.

--
Richard Seeder
AApex Information Systems

Dan Martin <dcmartin@affinitycorp.com> wrote:
>I'm finding it harder to discern from the marketing blurbs what is,
>and is not, a windows-only printer.

This page includes such information for a very large number of printers:

http://www-912.ibm.com/s_dir/slkbase...f?OpenDocument

John
--
John DuBois spcecdt@armory.com KC6QKZ/AE http://www.armory.com/~spcecdt/

Dan Martin wrote:
> I have customer who purchased a pair of Lexmark x5150 multi-function
> printers.
> They attach to PCs via USB, and work fine from windows. I told them
> not to even bother having me try to get them printing from their SCO
> 505 application.
>
> So, they asked for a recommendation to replace one or both of the
> Lexmarks.
> They need color printing for PC applications, and they could use
> copy/scan
> functions for Windows, but it's not a requirement.
>
> And I want is something that will let me pass control commands from
> the
> HPLaserJet or inkjet interface scripts. My preference would be a
> network printer accessed via netcat, but the customer uses FacetWIN,
> which makes it pretty easy to reach windows attached printers from
> SCO.
>
> I'm finding it harder to discern from the marketing blurbs what is,
> and is not, a windows-only printer.

I find http://www.linuxprinting.org is an invaluable source of
information about printers. I'd be wary of any printer not listed there.
Of course, just because Linux has a native driver doesn't mean OSR or
Unixware do, so you need to read the details to find out the protocol
used for the printer.