Editing CUPS (section)

=== Red Hat Linux/Fedora ===
[[File:Fedora-CUPS-gui.png|thumb|Fedora provides a print manager that can modify CUPS-based printers]]

Starting with Red Hat Linux 9, Red Hat provided an integrated print manager based on CUPS and integrated into [[GNOME]]. This allowed adding printers via a user interface similar to the one [[Microsoft Windows]] uses, where a new printer could be added using an ''add new printer wizard'', along with changing default printer properties in a window containing a list of installed printers. Jobs could also be started and stopped using a print manager, and the printer could be paused using a [[context menu]] that pops up when the printer icon is right-clicked.

[[Eric S. Raymond|Eric Raymond]] criticised this system in his piece ''The Luxury of Ignorance''. Raymond had attempted to install CUPS using the Fedora Core 1 print manager but found it non-intuitive; he criticised the interface designers for not designing with the user's point of view in mind. He found the idea of printer queues not obvious because users create queues on their local computer but these queues are actually created on the CUPS server.

He also found the plethora of queue-type options confusing as he could choose from between networked CUPS (IPP), networked Unix ([[Line Printer Daemon protocol|LPD]]), networked Windows ([[Server Message Block|SMB]]), networked Novell ([[NetWare Core Protocol|NCP]]) or networked [[JetDirect]]. He found the help file singularly unhelpful and largely irrelevant to a user's needs. Raymond used CUPS as a general topic to show that user-interface design on Linux desktops needs rethinking and more careful design. He stated:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cups-horror.html|title=The Luxury of Ignorance: An Open-Source Horror Story|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100528112951/http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cups-horror.html|archive-date=May 28, 2010}}</ref>

<blockquote>The meta-problem here is that the configuration wizard does all the approved rituals (GUI with standardized clicky buttons, help popping up in a browser, etc. etc.) but doesn't have the central attribute these are supposed to achieve: discoverability. That is, the quality that every point in the interface has prompts and actions attached to it from which you can learn what to do next. Does your project have this quality?</blockquote>