Yesterday, for the first time in my life, I was thankful for CUPS. My in-law's printer had been shared over their network via an SMB share on a Windows XP box. After 10 years, that old Gateway decided it was time to head to greener pastures. Luckily, I had an old Ubuntu box sitting in their basement running a few servers. "I could buy you guys a new print server. Or, perhaps I should just connect it to the Linux box and you can print that way."
Getting printing setup in a Linux environment, especially finding the right drivers, is ridiculously easy these days in comparison to when I was a boy. The OpenPrinting database makes looking for info about your printer child's play. After installing a bunch of packages with unpronounceable names (honestly, Linux naming is a joke), I had the printer working on the Linux box.
So what about getting all the Macs in the house to talk to this CUPS printer?
"CUPS is the standards-based, open source printing system developed by Apple Inc. for Mac OS® X and other UNIX®-like operating systems."
Yeah, this ain't no Windows environment, and as such, my job was as easy as one, two, three. A day when you're lavishing praise on CUPS is a good day, and not one I expect to repeat too often.