[Samba] Slow printing on Windows XP SP2 -- no solution?

[OSS]

Eddy wrote:

>I browsed through some posts about this issue which I've been struggling with
>for a long time now. Why is there no solution?
>
>I think this issue has been discussed so many times (with no final solution)
>that I don't need to rewrite the symptoms and logs. Printer HP LaserJet 1100
>with latest HP drivers. Smb 3.0.7 (also tried 3.0.12pre with no difference in
>printing time).
>
>This is what I hate about non-commercial software..
>
Eddy,

I've had this problem with XP SP1 on Windows & Samba print servers. 
(Most memorably when the XP migration discovered this bug at the Fire Halls)
The hotfix from 
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;329234 should be 
included in your SP2 deployment. It patches the Windows print spooler.
You can confirm I'm sending you down the right path looking at the 
Windows Print Spooler & network traffic - if you see a continuous series 
of RPCs from the client to the print spooler this is likely the problem. 
A possible fix is to lay SP2 down after the print drivers to ensure that 
the unpatched spooler is not being re-activated.

Regarding your last point - I think you are confusing commercial 
software with commercial support. There are organizations which provide 
paid SLA-based Samba support. If you need that in your environment you 
might want to look at: http://samba.org/samba/support/ . In environments 
I've worked in it is uncommon not to have commercial software without 
support. Personally I'll take open software with no support over 
commercial with no support, there is usually a community for the former. 
Although, for critical software I preferred commercial support.

Dave