[jeffbee]

It's because of the frankly idiotic idea of persistent print queues. If you want to have this artifact that survives a user session, then the print subsystem needs super-user abilities.

ChromeOS does away with the whole idea. There are no persistent printer queues or jobs. Artifacts of the printing subsystem have lifetime tied to the user session.

[funcDropShadow]

No, persistent print queues can be implemented without cups running as super-user.

[gordonfish]

I'm a little confused why this is even an issue. Persistent queues have been an option since the days of Windows 9x.

Maybe it's a Gnome problem. KDE let's me see what I had previously printed if I want to see it, or reprint something.

I also know many people in pre-press who make good use of that.

[amluto]

Windows 9x printing was every bit as bad as CUPS.

[gordonfish]

The point was about the retention of print jobs in queue, that it was a concept and option since the mid 90s.