In those network-enabled versions of Windows, any printer could be shared. On the other side – starting with Windows for Workgroups 3.10 and continuing through Windows 95 and later versions – Microsoft made printer sharing an operating system feature, not a printer driver feature. Apple even distributed replacement sharable printer drivers for some of their models. The LaserWriter 8 driver allowed many Postscript printers to be shared easily, for instance.īut most other printer drivers couldn’t be used to share printers. At that time, some printers had printer drivers that allowed them to be shared between Macs on an AppleTalk network. Let’s go back to the early 1990s, when up-to-date Mac users might be running something like System 7.1. Some of the reasons go way back to the Mac Dark Ages.

Making use of a shared printer connected to a Windows computer is still not as straightforward a process, however. Today, with OS X 10.4 Tiger, it’s generally reasonably easy for users with home and small business networks: Windows network shares (usually) show up in the Finder, and can be accessed without needing to be able to enter something like: smb://P4_10/DOWNLOAD Shared Printer Shortcomings Starting with OS X 10.2, Apple started to make it easier by attempting to recognize nearby Windows networks. Samba) clone of Windows’ network client, but users had to enter connection information manually in the Finder’s Go to Server dialogue box. Mac OS X 10.1 added support for the open source SMB (a.k.a. OS X 10.0 didn’t have Windows networking at all as with the classic Mac OS, 10.0 users needed a third-party program like Thursby’s Dave to connect to shared Windows folders. Each version of OS X has done a better job than its predecessors of “playing nice” with Windows networks.

Gimp for mac os 10.4.11