CUPS, the Common Unix Printing System, has been acquired, along with its lead developer, by Apple Inc.
They will continue development and release under the GPL.
This has to be good news for the FOSS community as a whole...
CUPS provides a mechanism that allows print jobs to be sent to printers in a standard fashion. The data is sent to a scheduler which sends jobs to a filter system that converts the print job into a format the printer will understand. The filter system then passes the data on to a backend—a special filter that sends print data to a device or network connection. The system makes extensive use of PostScript and rasterization of data to convert the data into a format that is suitable for the printer.
The primary advantage of CUPS is that it is a standard and modularised printing system that can process numerous data formats on the print server. Before CUPS, it was difficult to find a standard printer management system that would accommodate the very wide variety of printers on the market using their own printer languages and formats.
CUPS allows printer manufacturers and printer driver developers to more easily create drivers that work natively on the print server. Processing occurs on the server, allowing for easier network-based printing than with other Unix printing systems. When used with Samba, printers can be used on remote Windows computers and generic PostScript drivers can be used for printing across the network.
