Not quite..
Any $10,000 MFP has a network jack. Can we agree on that? OK, so if it does, it probably uses one of a handful of *already* standard protocols to pass data over the network. This isn't a new Apple concept, it's something that is and has been done today. Even in Ohio!
One thing most people don't realize is that printer support is unnecessarily complicated. With a Linux print server, you can get darn near 100% printer compatibility, because most printers speak either PostScript or PCL, or both. Things get dicey for low-end printers because they are often built at a price point that precludes enough hardware processing power to render printer control languages to pixels. (This is akin to the WinModem of yesteryear.)
The whole Windows driver fiasco is just that -- a fiasco. The only reason you need specialized "drivers" to convert the Windows GDI into PCL or PS is because the framework is set up as such. When you download 500MB of software from HP, the vast, vast majority of that is fluff. Custom control panels, popup supply level announcements (handy as they are), free card creation software, etc.
Of course, *some* special features of MFPs are slightly beyond the capabilities of the basic languages, and so proprietary control is necessary to make *full* use. But, for simple get-an-image-to-paper, this can be accomplished by little more than rendering to PS, and throwing that at tcp/9100 on the printer. You can thank Microsoft for making it any more difficult than that.
