I realize that "crap printing system that has dogged Unix ..." is the writer's feeling, but
I have yet to find an alternative that allows the same level of flexibility and efficiency. My
favorite feature in distributed environments is that I (as sysadm) can select an appropriate
processor to handle a job. I can use dedicated print processor, the processor in the system that
has the disk on which the data is stored, the processor to which the printer is attached (the
printer itself if it is smart enough), or the processor that the user is on. With M$-Windows,
all I can do is watch streams of formatted data pass from the user's processor to the printer.

WordPerfect has the extremely intelligent feature of allowing me to configure the program to use
the UNIX printing system, create (and manage) a dedicated print spooler, or print direct to a
port (handy for printing sensitive documents).

The only downside(s) I can think of with the UNIX
printing system is that the configuration requires
that you know what you are doing and that so many printer manufacturers are so %#$#^% closed-mouth
about the printer command set(s) and/or do not provide either UNIX or GhostScript print filters.