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Comment by ShabbyDoo | Hacker News Reader

I have a HP LaserJet 4100 series at home which I bought several years ago on eBay for < $200. It's amazingly reliable and cheap to print with due to an abundance of 3rd party toner cartridges -- not that it matters much when we average perhaps a couple hundred pages a month in usage. Perhaps this device is so old that it emerged from HP's old school engineering culture?

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My dad only recently retired his old HP Laserjet 4 after almost 20 years of use. I remember using it when his desktop computer was running Windows 3.1. With a little maintenance that we did ourselves that printer remained a workhorse for the family for an unthinkable amount of time. I would love to see HP return to that level of quality.

But then you don't buy another HP printer, which is bad for business. Printers are the worst market for quality goods; the incentives are all wrong.

He bought toner cartridges. It's not a zero sum game.

HP business-level B&W lasers have, for the most part, stayed pretty good. Especially the older 4100 series, which is one of my favorite. Older B&W laser drivers were great, newer ones are usually still good.

For color laser I often go with Xerox, for inkjet AIO I go with Brother. I've had far too many multi-hour sessions dealing with HP AIO software and drivers.

HP standalone inkjet printers can be good, but it seems no one buys non-AIO inkjets anymore.

What is AIO?

All-In-One - printer, scanner, copier, and sometimes fax.

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