Well, I see its been a while since anyone posted on this thread, but I thought I'd throw my two cents in anyway. First of all, I agree that printing in Linux is wretched, but PPD files generally do ease the process through the wizard in cups, and the system itself is actually very streamlined once you understand how the components get along. In my experience, the PPD's included in cups generally don't work; it seems like they are created using estimates from other PPD's but anyway they are mostly junk. Also, it no longer matters to cups where the PPD is (so long as its somewhere safe). If the driver you installed uses a PPD file, it *should* work in cups, though this isn't necessarily true, especially for non-postscript printers.

Anyway, here's the rundown:

CUPS is (as its name suggests) a common printing frontend. It takes a standard set of commands as input, regardless of the printer being used. It then takes these commands and sends them to the printer, in one of two ways:

1) using its own "driver" via the definitions in a PPD. This is what is happening when you use the "Add Printer" wizard.

2) as a "server," sending the commands to an external driver. This may or may not use PPD files, and can even (in theory at least) be a windows program via wine.

In the second case, which is what is happening with the samsung driver you described, and also with hplips, cups isn't actually handling the printer directly; It is merely a standardized interface for you and your programs to interact with. This is especially useful when using samba to share printers with windows machines.

Hope this helps

Have to agree, i.e., "printing in Linux is wretched..."
The last cups version that works well with my printer is 1.3.11.
Everything since hasn't work correctly and is so slow I can go out for coffee while it prints, assuming, of course, the document gets printed correctly.
At this point I have xp running in VirtualBox so I can scan, print, and use bluetooth as they were meant to be used. None of the three work properly in Linux with my hardware. Unfortunately, I have to scan and print daily and it gets to be a pain in the
"you know what."

Greetz
I do see that there used to be issues with printers much like there is with wifi these days and for similar reasons, so many models with variations on a chipset and therefore the drivers they need. This makes it hard to shop for one with Linux specifically in mind and worse for those who buy printers first and install Linux second or haven't learned yet to research compatibility before buying any hardware. At least that was how it was when this thread started way back in 2004. Printing has changed in six years.

It seems to me the first thing to do is ask "What do I need to print?". I don't print many text documents anymore and only a few photos. Photos I tend to handle by inserting the memory card right in the printer. So I tend to buy printers that either accept direct camera connections or have lots of memory card slots.

If, for some reason, you do print a lot of text documents these days network enabled printers (even laser printers) are quite reasonable in price and very practical especially in modern homes with many PCs and laptops. There are even tutorials out there for creating your own print server from an ancient Classic Pentium or even x486 PC. Some of those are specifically for Parallel connected printers and people give those away.

It does take some pre-planning still when using an alternative OpSys but you don't have to be stuck anymore afaik.

Well, buying Linux "compatible" equipment doesn't always mean the item will work was well with the Linux drivers as it will with the windows drivers.
My HP scanner is suppose to be supported by sane/xsane, but I've spent hours, days, if not weeks, when it is all added up, tweaking Xsane and the results are painfully inferior (and slow). The xp driver works faster and without adjustment the scan is perfect every time.
HP provides drivers for my printer, but, again, the xp driver works faster and produces superior results.
A few months ago I purchased a bluetooth USB adapter that is suppose to be Linux compatible, but the available features are limited to the point of being near worthless. However, all features are available with the xp drivers.
Hence, that is why all three of the above items are ran in xp running in VirtualBox.
Of purchases made over the last year only the monitor, wireless pci card and graphics card work as they should in Linux and even then the hdmi sound available from the new graphics card was a royal pain in "x&%" to set up, but offers no advantage so I've turned it off.