Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!unido!gmdzi!strobl
From: strobl@gmdzi.UUCP (Wolfgang Strobl)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Rumor -> Loss of Mac's 20% advantage over Windows 3.0
Message-ID: <2955@gmdzi.UUCP>
Date: 29 Jun 90 23:25:24 GMT
References: <8918@goofy.Apple.COM>
Organization: GMD, Sankt Augustin, F. R. Germany
Lines: 36

alexr@ucscb.ucsc.edu (Alexander M. Rosenberg) writes:

>In article <2932@gmdzi.UUCP> strobl@gmdzi.UUCP (Wolfgang Strobl) writes:
>> ... (some statements about printer support in Windows, deleted)

>To correct you, Microsoft's marketing department says that they support 
>"169 printers" (I actually heard around 140.). They actually ship only a few drivers, and most of those printers were designed to be compatibile with one another.(i.e. HP LaserJet emulation). So they have a PostScript driver, a LaserJet driver, an Epson MX-80 (and the billions of other printers that use the same escape sequences), and so forth.

I don't care what Microsoft's marketing department says. I had counted
the printers in the compatibility list I got with Windows. But you are
right, they only ship a few drivers with Windows. 30, to be exact. The
Postscript driver is one of them, the HP PCL driver is another one. 
Most drivers in this collection know something about the differences between
the different models of the printer family they support. So these
30 printer drivers support 169 different printers.

>Apple supplies drivers for every printer they make, and you will note that 
>one of those is a PostScript driver, that for the most part, can drive 
>every color/B&W/whatever version of PostScript printer you may have. 
>Third-party products are available to support parallel printers, and 
>printers such as the HP LaserJet compatibles. Please note how easy it is 
>to install a printer driver on the Macintosh. You will also note the 
>LaserWriter and LaserWriter IISC drivers support background printing. Try 
>doing that under Windows.

I think Microsoft supplies drivers for every printer they make, and a
few more :-). I don't know how easy printer driver installation on the
Macintosh is, so please tell me. I just know how easy it is under Windows.
Your note about background printing support in the LaserWriter printer
driver of the Macintosh puzzles me. Background printing support should
be separated from the printer drivers. Windows comes with an application
called "spooler" or "print manager" which does the background printing.
It does this with whichever printer driver you want to use. So, please
tell me more about what I should try to do under Windows. Thank you.

Wolfgang Strobl