The nightmarish problem of installing a printer

[perryh at pluto.rain.com]

> > > Personally, for bulk printing, and even more so for
> > > intermittent printing (the kind where ink dries up and gets
> > > tossed away when you use the printer once every blue moon),
> > > most users would save a _LOT_ of money by looking at a laser
> > > printer instead.

+1

> > > Take a good look at Xerox'es "Phaser" line (used to be
> > > tektronix phaser). They're no longer pawn-your-firstborn
> > > expensive, they're reliable, and they basically speak every
> > > standard protocol on the market (including both Postscript
> > > and PCL).
...
> > The cheapest multi-function laser recommended by you is the
> > Phaser 6128MFP, an obviously loss-loser. The next version is
> > $1500 ...

The Phaser 6130 (which uses C, M, Y, and K toner cartridges rather
than the wax sticks that Tektronix introduced) was $400 about 4
years ago.

> > it would be total over-kill, and a gross waste of money,
> > to install one in my home.

I believe Gordon Bell, the founder of DEC, once said almost exactly
that about home computers :)

> A couple of years ago I got very tired of buying ink cartridges.
> I search and found the Samsung scx-4725fn for a very good price.
> Laser, network, all-in-one. It is not color but that was not a
> requirement for me.
>
> Just hook it up to the network and create a simple /etc/printcap
> and add the ip to /etc/hosts and away you go. 
>
> A quick search shows it can still be purchased for under $300 US.

Ditto for the Samsung ML-2571N, except that it is just a printer
and it was about $60 a few years ago IIRC.  (I am partial to the N
model, which is directly network connected.  Essentially the same
printer, but without the network port, goes for maybe $10 less.
IMO it's well worth $10 to just plug it in and have it work.)