Re: Brother laser (semi-O.T. ?)

["Raphael Tennenbaum" raphael@xxxxxxxx]

On Tue, 17 Mar 2009 10:30:50 -0700 (PDT), J R FOX wrote:

>[Caution: this is going to be more than semi-O.T.]

fwiw, I recently replaced a Canon i860 photo inkjet printer, which lasted about four
years, with a Canon MP530 multi-function for about $160, and am pretty well
pleased with it. as for the cost-of-consumables, I've somewhat resolved this by
having two printers on my home office LAN: the other is a Laserjet workhorse
which does 90% of my printing, while the multifunction handles photos and other
color (also labels, business cards & other specialized print tasks) and of course
serves as fax, copier, and scanner as well. at least this concentrates most of the
printing work where it's cheapest: I still pay a premium for the color carts,
unfortunately -- but I will say the Canon color inkjets produce spectacular results.
I was also happy to donate the ancient copier which took up about a cubic yard of
space and produced output that was barely serviceable. I used to have a prejudice
against multifunction devices of any sort (if one thing breaks out of five you have
to replace the whole thing) however at this price, and since the devices are so
interoperable, I could justify the expense for 2-3 years -- anything above that is
gravy.

I can't remember if you're still using OS/2, Jordan, but -- sad to say, the Canon
printer is no longer reachable with native OS/2 drivers (though it's possible the
CUPS port works) -- the printer works very nicely under Ubuntu, though I haven't
tried scanning under Ubuntu (under SUSE, Canon hardware was a great pita.)

-rafe