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

I see your problem

[WindBourne]

You do not have good enough insurance for eye exams. THis is for a PERSONAL printer, not office.

In addition, I have developed medical systems and worked in the medical world. Paper is NOT required. In fact, the opposite is true. The feds are now paying medical providers to drop all paper and be computerized.

Obviously, you do not work in the medical arena.

Re:I see your problem

[WindBourne]

Yes, but that is quite different. That has to have a big trace. OTH, this posting had nothing to do with printers/PDA/etc for drugs and legalities. It DID have everything to do with a PERSONAL printer. And for that, PDA's are replacing paper. What is needed is to simply not buy a printer. Once you have gone withit for a while, you will find that you have little need for it. I do currently have a printer (HP), but that is because I went through a very nasty 4 year long divorce and legal issues required loads of prints (if you think that pharmacy is behind times, look a lawyers; idiots). How much do we use it? Well, we have replaced the ink 3x and that is because it dried out every single time. No prints in between. More than likely I will see this printer (or give it away), buy a scanner and re-set up the modem for faxing with. Then my wife will simply use walgreens/walmart/target for any photo print needs that she has (higher quality anyways).