Customer Reviews

Network Printing: Building Print Services on Heterogeneous Networks

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I found "Network Printing" to be a fine example of taking documentation from at least half-a-dozen sources and tying it all together with a coherent theme: providing network print services to customers using (fill-in-the-blank) systems. Six years ago, when I was managing four Unix systems for 100 customers who wanted to print their reports on any of a dozen printers (some Ethernet, some Ethernet-to-serial), this book would have been a godsend. I especially enjoyed the description of the history of printing: it put into context a lot of things I just accepted without further thought. Anyone in the above situation, or even someone who would like to reliably set up print services, from either the client or server perspective, would be wise to get this book.

The BSD type printing systems were discussed head to toe but the System V printing systems were referenced sparingly. Because of this, many Solaris and SGI users will have to read beyond the BSD parts to interpret the concepts. I was also surprised that there was no information on CUPS, while some Linux operating systems use it as their primary printing system. If you look past these two points, the book is a fine reference for all UNIX administrators. There is a definitely a distinct demand for these types of books.

The BSD type printing systems were discussed head to toe but the System V printing systems were referenced sparingly. Because of this, many Solaris and SGI users will have to read beyond the BSD parts to interpret the concepts. I was also surprised that there was no information on CUPS, while some Linux operating systems use it as their primary printing system. If you look past these two points, the book is a fine reference for all UNIX administrators. There is a definitely a distinct demand for these types of books.