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[sevenlayermuddle]

Other half's new Mac Mini arrived last week, that'll replace our old XP box.   The 7LM abode now has two Desktops (both of them Mac Minis), a CentOS server,  a Firefox OS TV and a couple of diskless MythTV front ends.   Well and truly, a Microsoft-free environment.   

I wish I could say 'Farewell to Google' too.  But their search engine's just too useful, street view comes in very handy, and they host our mail.   Becoming Google-free might take more determination....

[ryan2390]

We used to be that way pretty much. Couple of unused windows laptops but every computer that was used was a Mac. Then I decided I wanted an upgrade and a Mac just wouldn't cut it for what I wanted.

I've now got to the point where I have so many pc games going back to a Mac would be very difficult.

[burakkucat]

Perhaps consider a Linux kernel based server and then have one or more "gaming" VMs with M$ Windoze? 

[kitz]

Congratulations on making the move to a Windows free zone

[sevenlayermuddle]

Congratulations on making the move to a Windows free zone

Thanks.

The only real obstacle so far, and this may have been the same for a new windows box, has been our printer - a canon MX700, LAN connected (CUPS), circa 5-7 years old, iirc.  Canon have withdrawn OS X support so no El Capitan drivers.  And at a glance, the other option of driving it via the Linux server, shared on network,  does not look easy either. 

I'm well aware that printer hardware is effectively almost foc, and a new printer can be had for not much more than the cost of a set of cartridges.  But it still bugs me... it is  a perfectly adequate printer, not without fault in design but 'better the devil you know' and anyway, I don't want to pollute the planet with its remains just yet.   

[kitz]

Canon have withdrawn OS X support so no El Capitan drivers.

Driver support is the main reason why I ended dabbling in linux.    At least it is better these days, but no consolation if you do have hardware that isnt supported

[roseway]

It's an unfortunate fact that some manufacturers provide little or no support to Linux, and in my experience Canon is one of them. There's a commercial project called Turboprint which fills in quite a lot of the gaps if you don't mind spending some money. I've used it successfully in the past to support a Canon photo printer.

[broadstairs]

It's an unfortunate fact that some manufacturers provide little or no support to Linux, and in my experience Canon is one of them. There's a commercial project called Turboprint which fills in quite a lot of the gaps if you don't mind spending some money. I've used it successfully in the past to support a Canon photo printer.

I've been using Turboprint for some years now with great sucess, hoever it does not support the dye-sub type printers but it does support a huge range of printers from most manufacturers. Otherwise it is rare these days to find commonly used hardware which does not work with Linux.

Stuart

[sevenlayermuddle]

Thanks for the input; I'd not given up hope of getting the printer to work with Linux, just got as far as discovering it was not trivial.  Since that was only ever plan (b),  I lost interest.   

It is a network-connected printer so far better if the OS X desktops can drive it directly, even if the server is off-air, using OS X network drivers.   On the very rare occasion I want to print anything from Linux (it is just a headless server), I have in the past just driven it via a share on an OS X systems.  That would still work if OS X drivers still worked  but Canon seem to have EOL'd support for that printer at current OS X version.

But if we do need to buy a new printer, I'll endeavour to find one with good Linux support.   And good 'AirPrint' support too, given all the iOS devices we use!   

[vic0239]

Congratulations on making the move to a Windows free zone

Thanks.

The only real obstacle so far, and this may have been the same for a new windows box, has been our printer - a canon MX700, LAN connected (CUPS), circa 5-7 years old, iirc.  Canon have withdrawn OS X support so no El Capitan drivers.  And at a glance, the other option of driving it via the Linux server, shared on network,  does not look easy either. 

I'm well aware that printer hardware is effectively almost foc, and a new printer can be had for not much more than the cost of a set of cartridges.  But it still bugs me... it is  a perfectly adequate printer, not without fault in design but 'better the devil you know' and anyway, I don't want to pollute the planet with its remains just yet.   

Have you looked at the Gutenprint drivers for OS X? http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/MacOSX.php The Canon MX700 series is listed, but as experimental. I've used these drivers in the past on the occasion when the OS X supplied version has misbehaved.

[broadstairs]

Just to add that Turboprint does very well at supporting network connected printers as well as directly connected ones.

As to Gutenprint you need the very latest version to work well with the Mac OSX, it may need to be compiled though at present as it has only been released on 16th January I believe. It is version 5.2.11.

Stuart

[sevenlayermuddle]

FWIW, after 'yum install cups-bjnp'  I have now got the printer working nicely with Centos.   

And it is shared over the network.   

Unfortunately, whilst OS X can see the shared printer, it doesn't seem to 'just work', it wants to know what driver to use.  So, back to square one as there is no official OS X driver for that model.   

TBH, I'm probably not going to expend a great more effort on this.  The printer stills works on my own Mac Mini (older OS X) and for the time being that is shared with the newer MAC.  And that suffices, though it gets irritating that it (unsurprisingly) stops working when my system is in standby, and may stop altogether when I update to El Capitan.

I've a small stock of cartridges but as and when they begin to run down, I may start window-shopping for a shiny new printer.   Darn, just said the W* word after all.   

I'd rather avoid anything other than 'out-of-the-box' operation for the new Mac Mini as it's not really mine, it's other half's.  She's perfectly capable of installing other packages or adapting to other solutions but this is her first foray into OS X, and I want her to have a good impression, it would be nice to keep things simple and 'by the book'.

[d2d4j]

Hi

I know you may have already checked, but from memory, most printers have compatible drivers from other branded printers. Have you checked to see

Also, this may be of interest/help but I don't have a lot to do with apple for a few years sorry.

Many thanks

John

http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/MacOSX.php

[sevenlayermuddle]

I know you may have already checked, but from memory, most printers have compatible drivers from other branded printers. Have you checked to see

Indeed, I have, thank you.

And OS X offers support for a Canon 'MX710 series'.   I have never heard of an MX710, but it seemed tantalisingly close to my MX700.    Eternal optimist that I am, I tried pretending my MX700 was an MX710 but although it allowed me to configure, and printed something recognisable, it was far from right - something distinctly skew whiff about colour alignment.   

[broadstairs]

I subscribe to the gutenprint mailing list and they had a huge amount of trouble recently with Mac OSX and apparently you need 5.2.11 of Gutenprint for it all to work properly but it is very new (see earlier post). SO if you can upgrade to gutenprint 5.2.11 it may work much better.

Stuart