Daniel Eran DilgerThe update package installs the latest printer, fax and scanner drivers specific to the devices the user has installed. The driver update does not appear unless the 10.6.5 update has been applied.
For a system with an HP printer installed, Apple only delivers the updated drivers for HP devices, reducing the need for gigabytes of disk space to be consumed by irrelevant printer software.
Apple details the models supported in its latest driver update in a support document. The list includes printer software released as of November 3, 2010.
The update includes third party printer software for over fifteen brands of printers, in addition to general purpose CUPS and Gutenprint (formerly Gimp Print) drivers created by the open source community to support a variety of other, older or discontinued printers from over ten other vendors.
Apple acquired the code for CUPS in 2007, and continues to maintain the open source project for Mac OS X and other Unix and Unix-like operating systems including Linux and BSD.
Apple now maintains printer driver updates for Snow Leopard
One example print software package, for the HP Photosmart C7200 series, initially shipped with Snow Leopard as version 4.0, later updated by Apple to 4.0.2. The latest update brings the software for this printer to 4.2, the newest version HP offers.
HP's own website now directs users to obtain their software driver updates through Snow Leopard's Software Update, listing only a year old version of the company's drivers in a package that includes utility software and custom scanner software, and older versions for previous releases of Mac OS X.
Apple changed the printing architecture in Snow Leopard enough to require updated new printer drivers for existing devices, and announced that it would be updating user's printer drivers via Software Update at regular intervals instead of leaving users to hunt down their own driver updates.
Andrew Orr
Amber Neely
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
11 Comments
No printer drivers here, there is a new iTunes.
The Apple support document claims one of my printer drivers has been updated...but it's not showing up in Software Update. Maybe later this evening?
AppleInsider is the first to carry this story so maybe they jumped the gun and Apple hasn't populated SU yet.
I had new HP printer drivers when I updated to 10.6.5 On Wednesday. However, I'm confused that Apple would want to be responsible for pushing printer drivers, but not be responsible for things like Flash and Java. I thought they were going more for a "download the latest from the other's website"
I wish more Apps would update via Software Update, but I guess that is what the App store is for.
No printer drivers here, there is a new iTunes.
The drivers are only present if you have the printer attached to your machine. Printer drivers in Snow Leopard download on-demand by default.
I had new HP printer drivers when I updated to 10.6.5 On Wednesday. However, I'm confused that Apple would want to be responsible for pushing printer drivers, but not be responsible for things like Flash and Java. I thought they were going more for a "download the latest from the other's website"
I wish more Apps would update via Software Update, but I guess that is what the App store is for.
They just deploy the printer drivers. They don't write them. Apple actually wrote Java for OS X. This may be available through the new App Store when Oracle starts releasing the OS X version. Flash is already semi-automatically installed through Safari with the recent change.