Now the printers, mechanically, seem pretty good. Some still feel cheap but not necessarily low quality. But all the firmware and software around them seems to be geared at whatever it takes to get you to spend a little more money. Stories like this one are exactly why I don't update my Brother TN-730 firmware.
Then they were horrible for 20 years until I decided to buy a Brother laser printer, and suddenly everything was right in the world.
In the modern era, I've just bought a cheap Brother black and white laser printer and called it a day. The toner lasts F-O-R-E-V-E-R.
1. HP Deskwriter. Built-in localtalk networking, connected to two Macs over phonenet. Bulletproof, paper handling was great.
2. HP Laserjet 4N. Built-in Ethernet print server, fast, bulletproof. Worked with 3rd party toner just fine. It was priced to pay HP enough for the printer even if you never bought toner.
3. HP Deskjet 6000-series. 6210? Worked great, beautiful color, obsoleted by USB replacing parallel ports.
4. Lexmark laser, bought used, worked with 3rd party toner, fast, networked, postscript. Was the workhorse for a political campaign.
Since about 2007 I haven't been happy with a printer. The toner is very expensive and the products are poorly made and not easily repaired.
Epson Workforce Pro: needs to print every week or its jets dry out.
HP OfficeJet X page at once, a great idea, but the jets jam if you don't use enough color, and the paper path breaks.
Brother printers: always yelling at me for some reason, and they wear out.
Lexmark color laser: great physical printer but the controller board hangs. Too unreliable for business. Toner is expensive.
Before the Deskwriter I had printers I was less happy with. An Epson dot matrix, I mean, nobody liked their dot matrix printers, and an Apple Stylewriter that was finicky, not crisp, and didn't hold much ink.
Now you know why the manufacturer wants to change things.
I was concerned my instructors might question wether I typed it, or used a dot matrix printer. None had a clue.
I was one of the first people to have a computer and printer, and I was embarrassed. It felt like cheating.
I will never understand why we as a society go from a device that works and is built well; to overpriced gadgets that are constantly trying to trick us to giving them more money.
I would like to see a ratings system, like that one we had here from I believe the EU that rated items on repair, but include any other shinaggigans after sale.
It's too bad Brother's caved in to greed. I was one of their unpaid promotional guys up until today.
I like to give credit where credit is due. I throw this in.
If you need a plumbing fixture buy Moen. I have two faucets that I have gotten free parts with for 15 years plus. I fill out a simple form, and send my receipt to them via email, and the parts arrive in the mail. In all honesty, I need to change my pipes to copper, or pex, but have procrastinating for years. Hence, I always buy Moen, and tell people just how good the company is. Moen recently changed up their lifetime warranty, but most products are still lifetime. If I was CEO at that they would go back to a simple lifetime guarantee on every product. It's free word of mouth advertising, and it's honest customer advertising. Once a company has word of mouth fairness on their side; they will actively have to make stupid decisions to not attract new customers. They should teach this in MBA day school. Just be fair, and honest.
It’s nice that they give lifetime warranty though.
What does the material your pipes are made from have to do with what company's faucets, showerheads, handles, etc. you buy? Also couldn't you replace your pipes but keep your existing Moen parts?
Captain Pedantic checking in: the 1020 was the printer. Your computer was likely an Atari 800 or summat. The 1020 was also a plotter, and not an inkjet.
it's a basic dichotomy of long versus short-term thinking. markets in general and their people tend to be on the short-term side.