[LAU] OT: printers

[david]

Ken Restivo wrote:
> I don't need to print often, and when I do, I just go into Office
> Depot and use their printers (11 cents per page, not bad). But lately
> I've been thinking it'd be convenient to have a printer sometimes.
> 
> So when I was last in Office Depot, I walked over to the printer
> section and started looking around. And the sales guy came up and
> asked me if he could help.
> 
> I said "I'm just looking for a printer that doesn't suck, and where
> the cost of the ink cartridges isn't more than the printer costs".
> 
> And the sales guy said, "Well, if you invent one, let me know". And a
> customer who was standing behind me turned around and said, "Yeah,
> let me know too!"
> 
> That said. Is there no-one who will rid the world of printers that
> suck, and whose cartridges cost more than the printer?
> 
> Does such a mythical beast as an affordable, reliable printer whose
> cartridges don't cost more than the printer, really not exist?
> 
> (Also, works with CUPS on Linux, in such a way that it actually
> presents useful ERROR MESSAGES, instead of just unhelpfully blinking
> a light over and over with no details as to what exactly is wrong?)
> 
> I figured I'd ask this group.

We've been using HP LaserJets for ages here at home. Currently have a
LaserJet P2015D (can automatically print both sides of a sheet). They
work fine with CUPS. You get a LOT of pages out of a toner cartridge
(typical average figures are 3000 pages). I think in the last 12 years
of using laser printers, we've only had to buy 2 replacement cartridges.
They print MUCH faster than inkjets!

There are other brands out there, too. I've heard good things about
Brother laser printers. They're cheaper than HPs.

Ages back, I used a Lexmark 4039 laser printer. It was a workhorse - 
never broke down even though it was old when I inherited it. Never had a 
paper jam. Of course, the 4039s weren't "affordably priced" printers ...

The same employer had an HP LaserJet I (yes, the first HP laser jet 
printer) hooked up to their mainframe and used it to print out daily 
financial reports. Roughly 300-500 pages each day, 7 days a week. I 
worked there 13 years. They'd had it for I don't know how many years 
before that. A few years before I left there, it finally quit printing - 
because a tooth on a small plastic wheel inside had FINALLY broken. They 
could have gotten the replacement part from HP and repaired it, but they 
decided it was time to get a faster laser ...

Anyway, I've like HP lasers very much since then.

-- 
David
gnome at hawaii.rr.com
authenticity, honesty, community