CUPS has a lot of new features compared to LPRng (especially as a print server). It now has tight integration into samba and KDE -> e.g. KDE finds all CUPS-printers on my LAN automatically and installing them is just a click. But currently I have to recompile kdelibs, kdebase and samba to get full support for cups. LPRng also had a lot of major security issues in the past and I expect more to come. CUPS instead had just one I remember... So please include CUPS in your default installation and compile KDE and samba with cups support. Thank you.
Longer term, perhaps, yes.
Does this mean it is scheduled for next release or not? All the other major distros have it as default printing framework for a while now (SuSE since 7.2, Mandrake since I think 7.1)...
Not. Longer term than that, I think.
I guess there is nothing wrong with compiling kde/samba with cups support. Gerd, you might want to file a RFE under kdelibs/samba.
I think that if you watch rawhide in the next few days you might see something interesting..