Geoff,
Have you looked at Novell Distributed Print Services? It is
intended to solve precisely the problem you addressed. And,
contrary to popular belief and to Microsoft's hype, NetWare is
still the vendor of choice when it comes to sharing and
managing printers.
In fact, I am disappointed, but not surprised that you have
succumbed to MS FUDGE (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt, Greed,
and Envy). NT is shipping a lot of NT servers (approximately
the same amount as NetWare servers) but they (the NT
Servers) are overwhelmingly being used as Application
Servers and not as File and Print Servers. NetWare is still
maintaining the 60+% market share in the area of Print!
Again, please look at NDPS, Novell's next generation print
service since NetWare will continue to have a dominant role
in the area of print. NDPS was designed to allow
administrators to manage multiple printers from different
vendors with a consistent GUI and to allow printer vendors to
differentiate themselves to maintain brand awareness and
competitive edge. Also, in the future, network administrators
will be able to use NDPS to manage printers over the
Internet.
More info is available at
http://netware.novell.com/discover/ndps/
or contact me at
rwhittle at novell.com
Regards,
Rob Whittle
Novell
>>> geoffster <geoff at paypc.com> 08/05/96 11:56pm >>>
Hi all
I'll don my abestos jacket and send this note on its way.
Can anyone forward me info on this and who to contact at
MS - who knows,
maybe MS is lurking on this list.
We should welcome this because they add a useful
perspecive to office
productivity that I can see lacking in the mindset of some
PWG members as
well ensuring relevance to NT which is *THE* N/OS of the
future (immediate
shortcomings aside). I am aware of the flames this is likely
to produce,
but like it or not, it happens to be reality.
They are one of the few companies that do not make printers
and have a
record of getting things to happen quickly when they put their
minds to it.
I only hope it is more successful than their "At Work"
proposal that has
since died.
A standard in NT would be much better than a dog's
breakfast of printer
company distributed software to configure printers. Many
printer companies
do not have their drivers on a web or FTP site and seem to
think that end
users should have no contact with them except through
dealers* (= garbled
messages and ensuring little no useful product info once it
goes through
the dreaded marketing department). There is no provision
made for direct
feedback.
I know none of this will be welcome, but I know a lot of
pissed off end
users who never seem to get consulted by printer companies
and have no
means of giving feedback. They get lots of useless features
that add costs
but makes life more complex than it already is and hardly
ever attempt any
serious product differentiation.
For all its faults, MS does have a system of escalating
complaints rather
than the "talk to the dealer" approach of the printer industry,
and they
would undoubtedly be able to add a great deal of experience
and knowledge
to the art of printing.
The whole point of the MIB is to make life easier for people,
right ?
MS wins by this and puts a lot of energy into making this
happen. They are
a welcome asset and maybe they see things the PWG does
not see, or perhaps
shuts it face against.
Just my $0.02c.
Geoff