23.1. Printers are complicated

Users lump printers in with other peripherals such as monitors and speakers, but that viewpoint doesn’t give printers credit for their complexity. Once upon a time, the most powerful computer Apple made was the Apple LaserWriter. Today, your desktop machine is probably more powerful than your printer, but the printer is still a computer. It has a CPU, memory, an operating system, and perhaps even a disk. If it’s a network printer, it has its own IP address and TCP/IP implementation.

If you have a modern network printer around, enter its network address into your web browser (e.g., 192.168.0.9). Chances are that the printer will return some web pages that let you administer the printer hardware; the printer ...

Get Linux Administration Handbook, Second Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.