by , 11:45 AM EDT, April 25th, 2001
The release of OS X has seen a large number of older (and not so old) peripherals rendered useless. Driver support for the new OS is still scarce at best, and those wanting to use some older printers, scanners, controllers, and other hardware add-ons are stuck playing a wait-and-hope kind of game.
One company that has made a real effort to add OS X support to their products is Hewlett-Packard. Most of HP's USB based ink jet printers are supported out of the box with OS X, and they have also released a set of OS X drivers for many of their LaserJet series of printers. Users of HP's Photosmart printers, however, are still awaiting news as to whether their units will be supported. The Mac Observer contacted HP and found that Photosmart users are indeed in luck.
An HP representative said that Photosmart drivers offering "basic functionality" should be posted to the HP Web site soon, while full driver support for their Photosmart line should be available this Fall. According to HP:
A driver with Mac OS X support for the photosmart legacy printers (1000, 1100, 1215 & 1218) is currently under development and due to be released (via the hp website or the customer care centers) in the October/November '01 timeframe.
In the interim, there's a plan to introduce a "temporary basic functionality" driver with OS X support through the hp website fairly soon. This temporary release will allow basic printing, but no card access or save functionality. The list of supported products under the temporary driver is being finalized.
So those users with Photosmart printers should not lose faith yet, as it seems that help is on the way. You can find more information about their full line of products at HP Web site.
Hopefully other companies will soon follow with support for scanners, CD-RW drives, game controllers, and the wealth of other devices that people rely on for everyday use.