Downgrade "cups" to Recommends:

[Daniel Richard G.]

Binary package hint: kubuntu-desktop

Echo of bug 302272.

When setting up Ubuntu desktop systems in a corporate/institutional setting that happens to have a central CUPS server and networked printing infrastructure, it is desirable not to have cupsd (and all its associated weight) installed on the desktops, and instead configure cups-client (via /etc/cups/client.conf) to talk directly to the central server.

Why? Ease of administration. The CUPS server is a fairly complex piece of software in its own right, and having one instance of it in a centrally-managed location is complicated enough without having basically the same piece of software running on every desktop. (This was made especially clear to me when I investigated how one sets the default print queue. There are potentially THREE places where this can be done: (1) on the client, in /etc/cups/lpoptions; (2) on the local CUPS server, via "lpadmin -d"; (3) on the central CUPS server. #1 and #3 are reasonable; #2 is just a headache waiting to happen.)

Please downgrade "cups" to a recommendation of the -desktop package, so that the latter can be installed (and retained) sans CUPS server.