There are also PPD files, which you can add to CUPS. I extracted the required file for my Xerox printer from the Windows driver.
It mostly comes down to being as smart about printer brand choice, as you are smart about OS choice. Dell? HP? Have fun sleeping in that grave you dug yourself.
Drivers are in the kernel, unless they’re not.
There are also PPD files, which you can add to CUPS. I extracted the required file for my Xerox printer from the Windows driver.
It mostly comes down to being as smart about printer brand choice, as you are smart about OS choice. Dell? HP? Have fun sleeping in that grave you dug yourself.
Printer drivers aren’t in the kernel AFAIK. They’re in CUPS and mostly CUPS uses IPP Everywhere these days.
CUPS is not driver software.
It’s a “printing system” that provides a web interface for configuration some of that configuration may require a vendor supplied config file.
“IPP Everywhere” (Internet Printing Protocol) is a print server (ie “sharing”) software serving the IPP communication protocol.
So the chain goes:
Hardware -> Firmware (if any)-> Driver-> Printing System -> Print sharing