Choosing a Personal Printer For the Long Haul

The Optimizer writes "After 16 years of service, my laser printer, a NEC Silentwriter 95, is finally wearing its internals out, and I need to find a replacement. It's printed over 30,000 pages and survived a half-dozen long-distance moves without giving me any trouble. I believe it's done so well for two reasons. First, it's sturdily built and hails from an era when every fraction of a penny didn't have to be cost-cut out of manufacturing. The other reason was its software. Since it supported postscript Level II, it wasn't bound to a specific operating system or hardware platform, so long as a basic postscript level 2 driver was available. A new color laser printer with postscript 3 seems like a logical replacement, and numerous inexpensive printers are available. I'd rather get a smaller, personal-size printer than a heavy workgroup printer. Most of all, I would like it to still be usable and running well with Windows 9, OS X 11, and whatever else we will be using in 2020. Can anyone recommend a brand or series of printers that is built to last and isn't going to be completely dependent on OS specific proprietary drivers?"

Comments

hmmmm

[Anonymous Coward]

Pencil and Paper? You want a well built device that is not going to rely on OS specific closed source drivers? I'd say that leaves a pencil.

Buy pda instead

[WindBourne]

Skip the printer. There is VERY little need for a personal printer unless you are into scrap booking or something like that.

Re:No, we can't recommend anything

[Dancindan84]

Your dream of buying a cheap personal printer that will last you two generations of Windows is simply impossible.

You mean today's printers can't last more than three years?

I think he, like most of us, denies the existence of ME and Vista.

Re:Are you kidding

[sopssa]

This makes it to the front page of Slashdot?

You're not seeing the big picture. *Of course* this isn't about finding a personal laser printer. The submitter is *obviously* building something big... like sharks with lasers!

The best laser printer is

[Anonymous Coward]

the one that uses the same toner cartridges as the one at work.

Re:OSX 11?

[Marcx77]

Yes. He's hoping to buy a printer that will last him 1001 generations of Apple's OS.

Re:Are you kidding

[sukotto]

Somehow "Sharks with frikken laserprinters in their heads" just doesn't seem as cool

Re:No cost cutting in manufacturing?

[Capt.DrumkenBum]

They didn't need to try to cut costs, because they could pass their costs on to the customer, and the customer would be happy because it meant less downtime.

What a radical concept... Think I could patent it? :)

No.

[denzacar]

The joke translates: find one with readily available cartridges.

No it does not. It translates: "Find one with FREE cartridges."

It is a common mistake.
"FREE!!!" is the base of many words in Freeloaderian language, so the actual meaning often gets mangled when translated to English.

Re:No.

[PCM2]

Listen to the man. My last company went out of business. I ran home and brought back all the cases of Post-It Notes, but they told me it was already too late. The locks had been changed.

Swollen?

[Anonymous Coward]

I've bought a handful of printers (4 total).

You either have a very big hand or very small printers.

Re:30,000? Junk!

[H0p313ss]

Bonus points for pointing out the assumption of base 10!

Re:That's easy

[Ironica]

HP Laserjet 4 and a box of crayons.

WTF? Who uses crayons anymore when you can go down to Costco and get a set of 100 high-quality colored pencils for what the box of 64 Crayolas (with the built-in sharpener) used to cost? They're FAR more durable, give better image quality, and offer a much larger gamut. I've never seen a toddler eat a colored pencil, either.