Date   : Sun, 28 Nov 2004 09:13:26 -0800
From   : Ewen Roberts <ewen_roberts@...>
Subject: Re: Printers

This is the price you pay to get a printer for less than a 100 quid (or 
$70 here). What was the cost of (for example) a Star LC10 back in the 
90s? Manufacturers have been in a price war for the last decade and 
most have moved to the razor blade model in order to stay profitable.  
This is why my Epson 777i cost me $70, but a new set of ink cartidges 
cost me $60, and Epson, Lexmark et al will do anything to suppress 
sales of refill kits.  The store and the vendor make their money from 
the things associated with the printer, such as the ludicrously 
expensive USB cable mentioned (laugh in the salesmans face and buy one 
online).  The printers are as dumb as possible to keep their cost low, 
and RISC OS had an early form of this with CCs LaserDirect range.

Although it's a bummer that most printers are USB only nowadays, 
complaining that a classic beeb can't print to one seems a little 
ridiculous to me.

un

On 28 Nov 2004, at 07:34, Andrew W wrote:

> In <URL:news:local.misc> on Sun 28 Nov, Mike Mallett wrote:
>> Many printers now rely on Windows to create the print image and so 
>> will only
>> work on a Windows PC and ano good for anything else including a Beeb, 
>> The
>> easiest way to check is to look for the OS support. If it only metions
>> Windows and probably a higher spec PC  it is one of these so called 
>> Win
>> printers. If it mentions DOS, Mac, Unix etc you may well be OK.
>>
> That's atrocious thow isn't it? I mean changing the 'standard' port
> from parallel to USB is one thing but making Windows the only OS
> supported is another!
>
> A.Weston
> -- 
> Staffordshire, UK of GB&NI.
>
>
>