jr@amanue.UUCP (Jim Rosenberg) (04/18/88)
I need to buy a line printer for a machine which will initially have no more
than 10 or so concurrent users, probably growing to 20 or so. Currently we
have a 300 lpm printer for an antiquated machine that's being replaced, and no
one has complained to me that that's unacceptably slow. I put about $5.5K for
this into the budget, without really knowing what's what in line printers for
small UNIX systems.
I used a Printronix line printer on a PDP-11 system once. (It ran RSTS, if
you will excuse my vulgar language.) It seemed like a very nice unit. Other
than that I have little experience with what's good in line printers, and
would appreciate opinions from netlanders. To the DP folks who consume the
reports, the printer *is* the computer; if the printer goes down I will hear
about it pronto!! So I am more concerned with reliability and availability of
on-site maintenance than bells and whistles.
Please mail me any recommendations -- or stay-away-from experiences, and I
will post a summary. Thanks in advance.
--
Jim Rosenberg
CIS: 71515,124 decvax!idis! \
WELL: jer allegra! ---- pitt!amanue!jr
BIX: jrosenberg uunet!cmcl2!cadre! /pavlov@hscfvax.harvard.edu (G.Pavlov) (04/18/88)
In article <274@amanue.UUCP>, jr@amanue.UUCP (Jim Rosenberg) writes: > I need to buy a line printer for a machine which will initially have no more > than 10 or so concurrent users, probably growing to 20 or so. Currently we > have a 300 lpm printer for an antiquated machine that's being replaced, and no > one has complained to me that that's unacceptably slow. I put about $5.5K for > this into the budget, without really knowing what's what in line printers for > small UNIX systems. > I would suggest one of two options: a. purchase 2 8-10 ppm laser printers; outfit one with a 14-inch paper tray, leave other as is. We have been using a LaserJet with good success as our "line printer"; b. if you need to use fanfold paper, or print multi-part forms, substitute an HP RuggedWriter 480 for one of the lasers. This is a printer that I have been considering, but it also received an excellent evaluation in Byte this month, for whatever that is worth to you. The above two options would give you a good deal of flexibility as well as reasonably high speed and throughput. Total cost should be apx. $5k for the first option (including extra memory and a font cartridge for each machine) and apx. $4.5k for the 2nd. greg pavlov, fstrf, amherst, ny P.S.: we too have a 300 lpm (band) printer (in excellent shape; duty cycle of apx. 75 hours per month on a 2400-baud connection) that we would like to dispose of. Any interest, anyone ???
pavlov@hscfvax.harvard.edu (G.Pavlov) (04/18/88)
In article <274@amanue.UUCP>, jr@amanue.UUCP (Jim Rosenberg) writes: > I need to buy a line printer for a machine which will initially have n...... > > Please mail me any recommendations -- or stay-away-from experiences, and I > will post a summary. Thanks in advance. While many of the Japanese printers are well-made and produce good output, I have decided to stay away from them. Why ? Because my own experience (and that of various users on the net) is that after-sale support from the vendors tends to be very poor. The telephone numbers published in the printer manuals are either impossible or very difficult to get through. Perhaps others may have better experiences that they could report. - Lest this be interpreted as jingoism, I want to say that I am aware that US offices are largely semi-separate operations run by us (as in U.S.) citizens/residents. greg pavlov, fstrf, amherst, ny