My first contribution to the free software community I did in the beginning of 1998 and it was a non-root mode for X-CD-Roast 0.96 because we got a CD burner and we needed a possibility for easily using it without giving "root" access to our CD-burning server for every user. Later on I did also a translation of X-CD-Roast 0.98 into brazilian portuguese.

As we got a new laser printer in early 2000 (HP LaserJet 4050 with duplex unit) I didn't want to go on with the workaround scripts which my predecessors made for other printers to make the duplex and the paper tray selection working and an article by Kurt Pfeifle lead me to install CUPS which supports the full functionality of PostScript printers nicely. Unfortunately, the graphical frontends for easy access to the printer options were only available in the commercial add-on ESP Print Pro, so I wrote my own frontend, XPP, which was my first own free software project.

I finished a first version of XPP within 10 days and announced it on Freshmeat and one day later Kurt invited me to show it on the LinuxTag 2000 in Stuttgart in Germany in the beginning of July 2000. The Mandrakians were very interested in my work so that I got a job offer three days after the show.

I moved to Paris to start my new job on August 1st, 2000. Since that day I am working in the software engineering department of MandrakeSoft where I am in charge of the printing system in the Mandrake Linux distribution. My first task was to move from LPD to CUPS as the default printing system for Mandrake Linux 7.2. One problem was that CUPS needs a PPD file for every printer which should be supported. To not disappoint the users by loosing the support for their printers which worked with Mandrake 7.1 (with RHS Printfilters) I had to generate PPD files for evry printer, and this lead me to LinuxPrinting.Org with the Foomatic database.

The database contained nearly all available printers and printer drivers, but in most cases not the info how the drivers have to be executed, and this info the database needs to generate PPD files. I talked with Grant Taylor, the owner of the database and he gave me access to add printer, driver, and driver execution information through a web interface. So I could complete this information (around 90 % of the drivers were lacking it) and the server generated the complete set of PPDs for me.

All the time I kept the database up-to-date and made all options (Page size, resolution, quality, input tray, ...) of the drivers available, partly by examining their source code (RHS Printfilters in most cases only provides page size and resolution). This made Foomatic more and more attractive and turned it to a new standard for several distributions of GNU/Linux.

Now I am co-webmaster for it and have full access rights to the whole content. As full-time printing developer at MandrakeSoft I do most of the maintaining because Grant has not much time due to his work at Starent, a start-up.
 
 

Programming

• Co-webmaster of LinuxPrinting.Org, entered the execution information of most printer drivers. Written the tools for using the database on one's local machine, added PPR and spooler-less printing support, PPD file generation for applications, ...
• The X Printing Panel, graphical interface for printing with CUPS and the little useful tool lphelp, a command line tool to list the available options for a printer under CUPS.
• The printing environment of Mandrake Linux since version 7.2. In the current release (8.1) I have implemented full Foomatic support for the printing systems CUPS, LPRng, and PDQ with all printers supported as described in the Foomatic database.
• Many ideas and bug fixes for the former KUPS and QtCUPS which probably had also influence on the current KDE Print (printing system of KDE 2.2),

• Talk "linuxprinting.org and Foomatic - The New Generation of Printing with Free Software" on the LinuxTag 2003 in Karlsruhe, Germany, slides (OpenOffice.org), paper (HTML, PDF), photos (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), all files.
• Talk about linuxprinting.org and Foomatic (given in portuguese, OpenOffice.org, PDF) and tutorial about setting up printers with Foomatic and CUPS (given in portuguese, HTML, PDF) in Brazil, on the Fórum Internacional Software Livre 2003 in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul (Photos, all files).
• Talk "linuxprinting.org and Foomatic from the developer's point of view" on the Free and Open Source Developers European Meeting - FOSDEM 2003 in Brussels, Belgium.
• Talk "The new generation of printing: CUPS and Foomatic" on the Linux Solutions 2003 in Paris, France.
• CUPS/Foomatic tutorial together with Kurt Pfeifle on the Linux-Kongress 2002 in Cologne, Germany (Photos).
• Workshop "Foomatic for Distributors and Contributors" on the LinuxTag 2002 in Karlsruhe, Germany (OpenOffice.org 1.0 files, PDF).
• Talk about linuxprinting.org and Foomatic in Brazil, on the Fórum Internacional Software Livre 2002 in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul (talk given in portuguese, KPresenter and image files, PDF, Photos).
• Talk about printing with free software on the Free and Open Source Developers European Meeting - FOSDEM 2002 in Brussels, Belgium (KPresenter files, PDF, Photos).
• Talk about printing with free software in Brazil, on the Linux Expo 2001 in São Paulo and on the Fórum Internacional Software Livre 2001 in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul (talk given in portuguese).
• Presentation with live installation of Mandrake 8.0 in Caratinga, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

• Office Productivity booth on the LinuxTag 2003, photos (album, 86 MB JPEG archive), poster with screen shots (OpenOffice.org, PostScript A1, A4), poster with printing data flow (xfig, PostScript A1, A4), booth auto-demo (OpenOffice.org), all files.
• Booth about printing with free software on the Linux-Kongress 2002 in Cologne, Germany (Photos).
• Booth about printing with free software on the LinuxTag 2002 (Photos, Presentations/Posters).
• Booth about printing with free software on the LinuxTag 2001 (Photos).

• Participation in the Open Printing Group of Freestandards.org.
• Participation in the Open Source Printing Summit on October 25 and 26, 2001 in San José, California, USA.
• Participation in the Printer Working Group Meeting on June 16 and 20, 2003 in Portland, Oregon, USA (My talk about Foomatic in OpenOffice.org and PDF format, other talks, photos).

• A Configurando Impressoras com Foomatic 3.0 (Configuring Printers with Foomatic 3.0) in the brazilian magazine Revista do Linux (in portuguese).
• I was interviewed by the brazilian newspaper Hoje em dia.
• Various articles on the MandrakeForum, mostly about printing with Mandrake Linux.
• A HOWTO for using CUPS under Mandrake Linux on MandrakeUser.Org.
• A report about the LinuxTag 2000 in the brazilian magazine Revista do Linux (in portuguese).
• Translation of X-CD-Roast 0.98 to brazilian portuguese.

   till.kamppeterNOSPAM@gmail.com
               

Please send your mail in english, portuguese, or german and do not send anything which is only readable with Windows, I do not have this OS installed.

Any question about printing with free software please send to the Forums of LinuxPrinting.Org, then not only me but many other people read them and your chance to get your problem solved will be much higher.

Suggestions and bug reports for LinuxPrinting.Org please sent to BOTH me and Grant not only to Grant.
 
 

• The Linux printing page www.linuxprinting.org (with the Foomatic printer support database)
• GIMP-Print - Excellent printer drivers for colour inkjet printers
• OMNI - Support for more than 300 printers by IBM
• The CUPS home page
• The LPRng home page
• The GNU LPR home page
• The PDQ home page
• The PPR home page
• The X Printing Panel
• lphelp - list options of a printer under CUPS
• CUPS on SourceForge
• MandrakeSoft
• My articles on the Mandrake Forum
• My CUPS article on MandrakeUser.Org
• The Linux Printing HOWTO
• X-CD-Roast
• Sign the petition against software patents, also if you are living outside the EU!