Just thought I would add $0.02 to DeskJet thread. I got my
first one in college about 5 or so years ago.

	I've been a happy HP user of the DeskWriter for Macintosh for
past 5 years. I got one just a few months after their release. And I
got software revision 1.0a (now I'm up to rev. 3.1. Our family (sister
and father) have each purchased their own DW's after seeing mine go
for one year unscathed (their stuck to their trusty ImageWriter II's).
The original DW has gone for 5 years at moderate personal use. I would
say that it has gone through at least 15,000 sheets, and around one
(small) ink cartridge every 3 months or so.

	My brother might take this DW now (I'm probably gonna give it
to him), and I am looking to upgrade to a color DW. The chief
advantages/disadvantages I've found over the years are:

Advantages:	Quick (2-3 ppm), Quiet (roomate can sleep while it's
printing), AppleTalk Networkable (unfortunately the original wasn't,
so look out if you buy used. I rewired our home with phonenet
AppleTalk connectors, and while home, we can all use my dad's one
DW!), and cheap (now run ~$300). BTW, you can upgrade older DW's to
color or for appletalk, I dunno if HP still does the upgrades, but I
received many offers (I just didn't ned it however). Also, crisp
laser-quality output is a wonder (used to really impress those
ImageWriter Dot-Matrix people so much so, that I had to charge $0.25
per sheet to stop my college dorm neighbors from bothering me at all
hours of the night....)

Disadvantages.	Ink used to be hard to find, and wasn't cheap, and
wasn't originally water-proof. While HP has done wonders with the ink
(I dunno if it's still toxic), it is still subjet to smearing and
running (if you run around in the damp Boston rain, and get your
bookbag completely soaked). Ink now runs about $14-$15 for small carts
(I get mine from Elek-Tek in Chicago, I think they're now down to
$12). The ink carts used to say they're dated for only 6 months, but
I don't think they say so anymore. We stick to a 4 month supply (of
about 3 carts). We use cheap Hammerhill Laser Print paper (after
fooling for a long time. Laser/Xerox paper is also good). Smearing
doesn't happen, unless you have a brand new ink cart and you grab the
paper and smudge it all over as soon as it comes out of the machine.
Other disadvantages are : No Postscript (this can be an advantage in
speed, usually). Ways around this are Ghostscript or Freedom of Press
software solutions. I bet HP probably has a PS prototype inkjet, but
they won't release it for fear of hurting LJ sales.

In the end, the primary advantages of laser are true postscript
(unless you go for cheap lasers), and fused toner (no smearing, even
when soaking in water). Lasers are slightly sharper, but the only
instance where I needed precise layouts was Printed Circuit Board
Transparencies for PhotoEtching. I found a Textronix color Phaser
Postscript (Thermal Wax Transfer) to work the best to make PCB
negatives directly onto a transparency.