Vista support for Epson Sylus Photo 960 - promosed but not delivered

[Abe]

A while back in this newsgroup, someone from MS said that an Epson
person in Vista printing group confirmed that Espon is promising a
full featured Vista driver for this printer in April.

I can confirm that the USA Epson site indicated that there is no such
plan to provide a full featured Vista driver for this printer.

Did Epson lie? Or does the site not know what it is talking about?

Help?

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

What exactly do you mean by fully featured? There is a driver included in
Vista... and an Easy Print application which supports Vista on Epson's
website.

 

[Abe]

What exactly do you mean by fully featured? There is a driver included in

Vista... and an Easy Print application which supports Vista on Epson's
website.

The included driver does not support ink level monitoring,
double-sided printing, and a few other features of the printer. You
have to go back to XP to use those features.

Refer to these previous posts by Alan Morris:

You already have the answer!

From: Masumi (Seiko Epson)

Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2007 10:54 AM

To: Alan Morris; Epson Printing Team;

Subject: RE: Windows Vista and Epson Stylus Photo 960 printer

Hello Alan

Is there a compatible driver or is this an error?

It is an error of our home page.

Stylus Photo 960 will probably be supported by our custom driver. I
will confirm the launch schedule by tomorrow. Additionally I will
request to change our web site.

Thank you

Macky
--
Our Epson Web site has been updated. "Stylus Photo 960" was deleted.
We are going to launch "Stylus Photo 960 Vista printer drivers (only
32 bit)" around Middle of April 2007.

Thank you

Macky

 

[jimrx4]

Same with HP Photosmart 7960 and HP says no new drivers will be offered.
Sucks! My printer is just a little over a year old. One would think some of
these companies would do a better job - it's not like Vista caught them by
surprise.

 

[Alan Morris [MSFT]]

Epson is in control of this device's destiny. You need to ping Epson for
ink monitor support. That's never been a Microsoft requirement.

--
Alan Morris
Windows Printing Team
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;[ln];kbhowto

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Abe]

Epson is in control of this device's destiny. You need to ping Epson for

ink monitor support. That's never been a Microsoft requirement.

I would think that being able to tell how much in is left in your
printer would be a requirement for even the most basic driver.

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

Well you might think that, but the manufacturers don't see things the same
way us consumers do. If being able to tell how much ink was left in the
cartridge was totally essential, all the cartridges would be like Canon
ones..... SEE THROUGH! So even if the software did not tell you how much
was left, all you had to do was open the printer and LOOK at them. It's
not rocket science, or even printer science, but sometimes common sense is
lacking in developers and designers.

Sometimes I wonder if the developers ever use the printers that they want us
to buy!