The pox of painful printing
The nightmare
What could be simpler than printing a document? You've done it a thousand times and never given it a second thought, so why should it now become a nightmare? Maybe, once you upgraded to OS X, you found that your printer simply doesn't respond anymore. Perhaps you discovered that the new OS X Print Center utility, which replaces Chooser as the place to select a printer, doesn't support whatever printer you're unlucky enough to own. OS X comes with definitions for hundreds of printers, but it certainly doesn't have them all. Epson users, in particular, suffer all kinds of problems.
Analysis
Here's where users start to feel as though OS X is just a ploy to force hardware upgrades. The Print Center carries definitions only for newer, primarily USB printers. It doesn't support any that use the old printer port (a.k.a. the serial port), and it's truly a nightmare for owners of beige G3s--the predecessors of the blue-and-white towers--because OS X supports their computers (if barely) but ignores printers using the serial port. Even customers who use Apple's own printers are stuck; the Apple StyleWriter, dated but usable, still can't print under OS X.
Apple has said that it has no plans to support the old ports (serial and SCSI) because it wants people to start using the new ports (USB and FireWire). No one really understands why. New Macs, after all, don't have the old ports. Printer makers don't make machines with serial port slots anymore. In short, old serial and SCSI devices will die out eventually anyway, so why force people to upgrade before they need to?
Folks with USB printers face an even larger quandary. OS X ostensibly supports such devices, but some necessary drivers don't exist. Apple will tell you it's the printer maker's job to write the driver, and the printer maker will tell you it's Apple's job--either way, the drivers don't get written.
Advice
Apple representatives cheerfully suggest that you reboot into OS 9.x to print if OS X doesn't support your printer. That's enough to make anyone throw the Mac out the window. Meanwhile, all you can do is wait until an Apple software update includes definitions for your printer. Updates come frequently, so set your Software Update System Preference to check daily (go to System Preferences > Software Update > Automatically > Daily). Also, check your printer maker's Web site often, just in case it posts new drivers.
Those with serial port printers can either break down and buy a new printer or be vigilant and monitor user forums and sites such as MacInTouch to search for shareware that fixes this problem. Apple's not going to do it, so perhaps some enterprising developer will.
Tell me about those CD-burning nightmares!
{Intro} {Powerless against your own computer} {The case of the very, very bad Voodoo} {The pox of painful printing} {The horror of the permanently blank CD}
