On Sun 30 Aug 2015 at 09:31:50 +0200, to...@tuxteam.de wrote: > On Sat, Aug 29, 2015 at 11:00:51PM +0100, Brian wrote: > > [...] > > > None of these. Bonjour plays a central role in printing over a network. > > Discarding it as a very useful tool isn't very helpful. > > It aids in printer discovery. If your configuration is somewhat static, > it's totally superfluous. In a highly dynamic environment it's convenient.
The distinction between static and dynamic is a useful one when it comes to printing. With a policy of only printing to a local USB connected printer or a designated server in client.conf the need for service discovery with avahi-daemon is, as you say, superfluous. Whether it can be removed depends on the system setup. On GNOME its purging will take gnome-core with it. That doesn't look good. :), so disabling it looks a better bet. In a dynamic environment (moving from site to site, for example) I'd see the status of avahi-daemon as essential, not simply convenient. Setting up a static configuration in such a circumstance may not be easy. There is no assurance that anyone even knows the server address and, for some devices such as a mobile phone, it wouldn't do you much good if they did. > I know for sure: my printing runs perfectly fine without Avahi (and > without CUPS, at that). I've just two printers I've to talk to, "work" > and "home". Once they are configured, LPRNG does the rest. This is a static configuration equivalent to the CUPS one outlined above. It has the same drawbacks. There is no reason why either setup shouldn't produce a satisfactory printing experience. I believe LPRNG cannot do service discovery so a roaming user may have the trouble of needing to get a server name for every new situation. > Pick your tools. Know why. Indeed; but banning one of them reduces the possibilities of effortless printing.
