9.1 Proposal: Printing support

[Robert Myers]

> Peter Krenesky (CC'd) from the Open Source Lab at Oregon State has
> discussed some printing basics with me, and may have already begun
> further research in this area.  There is some info in the wiki on the
> subject: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Enabling_CUPS,
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Printing_Design, but I'm not sure how far
> along any hacking has actually gotten.
> 

I've had CUPS running on my XO since very early on. I just 'yum install 
cups'. I can print to a printer attached to and shared by a Mac which is 
on the same net as my XO with no issues. I can print from apps under 
Sugar which still have print hooks like Firefox, and from apps in XFCE.

This biggest issue seems to me to get printing support into Sugar and 
Sugar activities, and a reasonable UI to select printers.

I think printing should be possible on the XO. I realize that the 
average child/customer is not likely to have a printer, but it also 
seems reasonable to have printers available as a school resource 
particularly if there's an XS. Letting a child have permanent printouts 
of completed projects seems to be a really positive proof of 
accomplishment to me. Printing also seems to me as a must have for G1G1. 
These folks expect their computers to be able to print.

Bob