CUPS is unusable

[angelb at bugarin.us]

> My career started with Microsoft XENIX.  Give you some idea of how long I've been around Unices?
>
> So...my impression of CUPS?  If CUPS were to be listed in a software dictionary, there would only be one synonym: "clusterf**k".
>
> Now, mind you, this is just an impression.  For all I know, the underlying software may, for all I know, be amazingly elegant.  However, the "CUPS experience" has been so miserable that I would never know it.
>
> Unfortunately, "how in the world could anyone design such a poor system" is very much within my imagination - it's when someone has an excellent idea backed up with (possibly) a great deal of expertise coupled with a complete lack of understanding with how people work.
>
> So, will I master CUPS?  Only as much as I have to to get things to work - and with CUPS, that means becoming pretty adept at a lot of nonsense.
>
> PS
> Sadly, some of the latest Linuxes don't seem to offer any old-fashioned "lpr" methods anymore.  "lpr" still could present technical challanges - but it didn't have any pretense about being usr-freindly...and you could write a bunch of scripts and/or html cgi's to let a regular user administer it (try that with CUPS!).
>

I know exactly where you're coming from. In my early days of using CUPS,
it was pretty frustrating. And I have to admit, I swear at it probably
more often than you. It took me sometime to learn how to configure and
use it and I'm still learning.

However, knowing what I know now about what CUPS can do, I must say that
with CUPS, it can be one of your best open-source free software to help
manage 1200+ printers located all across the states.

lpr is still a reliable printing subsystem but I must tell you, it's not
the best way to manage local, remote, and network printers.

Currently, I have two CUPS servers running side by side to provide load
balancing and fail-safe printing operation. These servers are serving
over 1200 printers and I will add another 400+ printers in the next two
months. The only printing problem I see now are the printers themselves
not being able to catch up. We do tons of printings. I limit my log files to 40MB and roll over after that. It rolls about 2-3 times a day.

lpr printing works great only if you have a few printers, say less than
100 and shared by a few systems for remote printing.

CUPS do have some flaws and lack some features I think that may be very
usefull. But for now, it serves exactly what it was designed for and it
is being polished every day.

If you're a Windows guy, learn and use CUPS. It's much faster to share a
CUPS printer in Windows than if you're using Windows itself to share the
printer. I know because I use Windows XP and a Linux CUPS server at
home.

Keep on swearing at it but keep going... :)

Good luck!

Angel