Apple buys CUPS (Unix/Linux printing system)

tuaw.com ^ | July 12, 2007 | Erica Sadun

[HAL9000]

Excerpt -

Big UNIX news this morning. Apple has bought out CUPS, the common UNIX printing system. The name may not sound familiar, but it's part of every Mac OS X installation. CUPS implements a cross-platform printing system based on the Internet Printing Protocol and is, according to its web page, the defacto standard printing system for Linux. Until now, CUPS has been distributed by Easy Software Products under the GNU general public license. Although the purchase was announced today, it seems the actual deal went down this past February. In addition to acquiring the CUPS source code ownership, Apple has also hired Michael R. Sweet, its creator. CUPS will retain its GNU GPL2/LGPL2 licensing terms and Sweet intends to continue maintaining and supporting the product. FAQs about the change of ownership can be found here.

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Perhaps Apple will take over the Linux kernel next?

[Terpfen]

Perhaps Apple will take over the Linux kernel next?

That would be quite the step backwards for OS X.

[ShadowAce]

[zeugma]

It would be nice to see some serious money behind CUPS. Setting up remote printing is something I always dread on Unix boxes. Local printing in Linux is pretty easy, as most printers just work. Remote printing can sometimes be a PITA because the docs suck.