Question : Problem: 500 points! Thermal Printers in POS System

Hello!

I am setting up a POS system for the company I am working for. The application is all ready to go, the final piece of the puzzle is the thermal printer. Windows XP Pro and I am using VB.NET althought I don't believe this is important.

1.) Recommendation wise, what is the best thermal printer you used for the least amount of money
2.) What interfaces is the easiest to manage (serial, parallel, USB - I already know USB is the worst)
3.) What type of configuration would be nessecary to have to "Workstations" each with their own thermal printer, but they also shared a thermal printer in the kitchen. So this means, everytime an order is placed, it prints a copy on the workstation printer and the kitchen printer as well.

Answer : Problem: 500 points! Thermal Printers in POS System

Star makes POS printers - http://www.starmicronics.com/ - well known and used for years.  Not sure of supportability, may require custom drivers, may work with cups.  You will need to research this.  Star does offer "JavaPOS" and "LibStarIO" drivers for serial; the JavaPOS driver appears to be for a specific system, the LibStarIO driver *may* be able to be interfaced with cups on a server, you may want to check this out.  
Star also offers CUPS drivers for their USB and parallel printers (see http://www.starmicronics.com/printers/printers_pages/support/drivers.html )
Serial is the norm.  Parallel is probably easier (re: driver support)
CUPS could handle #3 if you have printers supported.