🚀 go-pugleaf

Here's a little unbridled rumor-mongering to start the new decade
(sure, I count starting from 0, don't you?).  Like many people, I've
been hoping that Apple would come out with a LaserWriter that could be
attached to an Ethernet.  It certainly seems like it wouldn't be all
that difficult to add Ethernet to an LW, do you printer gurus out
there agree?  Given the high price of other networked laser printers
(yes? no?) and the criminal lack of a generally-accepted IP-based
printing protocol (lpd notwithstanding), I'd think an Ethernet LW
would sell like le caques hotte.

I figured for a long time that Apple was waiting for AppleTalk Phase 2
to introduce such a thing, rather than having to upgrade it soon after
release.  But now that AT2 has been out for a while, I'm growing more
suspicious.  Though I've often said (half in jest) that Apple and the
LocalTalk-Ethernet gateway box companies must have a secret agreement
about this, since we are obliged to install a goodly number of
FastPaths simply to connect to LWs, I think it's much more likely that
Apple realizes that an Ethernet LW would further cement the hold that
PostScript has on the networked printer world.  I'm now guessing that
Apple won't release such a product until its much-debated "new print
architecture" is ready to see the light of day.  From recent reports,
(see this week's InfoWorld) that could be a year or more away.

The free enterprise system being what it is, I'd expect to see other
companies rush to fill this gap.  Or maybe such products are out there
already and I haven't heard about them?  It would certainly make sense
for the Adobe folks to push hard for such a thing.

Hmm, I think I've got to stop reading so many PC pundits' columns . . .

 - RL "Bob" Morgan
   Networking Systems
   Stanford