One
guy at Parallels Forum just asked why the need for SupaPDF Lite:
Quote:
Sorry to be a "Debbie Downer" (SNL reference), but...
While this sounds interesting, I'm not sure what the advantage is over simply generating PDF's natively within each environment. While from the video makes it looks pretty seemless, it seems like it has to jump through a lot of hoops just to get a PDF (passing data between environments, etc).
If you're looking for a free way to create PDF's on Windows, I highly recommend PDFcreator (free & open source). I have it installed on all my users, machines, and recommend it to my friends:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/
For linux, I'm sure there's something just as seamless and free.
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Here was my answer:
Quote:
Point taken.
What SupaPDF Lite leverages is the fact that OS X has a built-in CUPS Server, Bonjour and PDF is integrated right into the operating system with Quartz.
With this combination, you can have hassle-free PDF generation from any machine on your local network, including your Parallels VMs, without installing any SupaPDF client software.
Taking advantage of your Mac's PDF generation capabilities is often just a simple matter of registering the SupaPDF printer. In Windows, this takes all of three-steps with the Bonjour Printer Wizard. In KDE, KDEPrint detects network printers as soon as you open it. In Gnome, just checking Detect Network Printers in the Print Manager is all you need to do.
No client software to install. That's just it - no hoop-jumping required. 
And with Quartz, you can do all kinds of PDF operations: compress the whole PDF, compress just the images, encrypt, watermark, etc. etc.
With most Ghostscript-based implementations like PDFCreator, you're limited to creating PDFs using the print metaphor.
Granted, these extended PDF operations are not available in the current rev of SupaPDF Lite, but we'll be exposing a subset of them in upcoming versions. 
Also, we intend to use the software-less philosophy in the upcoming SupaPDF pro. The first page of any print job is scanned for Action hints. These hints can invoke these extended PDF operations as well as other workflow features like ZIP, FTP, and send to email. Check out the feature list on the website.
Lastly, it makes sense to store your PDFs on your Mac. Why? In a word - Spotlight? 
Just give it a try, you just might like it.
If not, you may want to take SupaPDF Pro for a spin once it comes out.
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