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Gary Starkweather, Inventor of the Laser Printer, Dies at 81

posted by martyb on Sunday January 19 2020, @05:13PM   Printer-friendly
from the dreaming-of-a-paperless-office dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/15/technology/gary-starkweather-dead.html

At the Palo Alto Research Center, or PARC, Mr. [Gary] Starkweather built the first working laser printer in 1971 in less than nine months. By the 1990s, it was a staple of offices around the world. By the new millennium, it was nearly ubiquitous in homes as well.

"We still use the same fundamental engine to print billions of pages a day," said Doug Fairbairn, a staff director at the Computer History Museum who worked alongside Mr. Starkweather at PARC. "It was all Gary's idea."

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  • (Score: 2) by Nuke on Sunday January 19 2020, @11:39PM (2 children)

    by Nuke (3162) on Sunday January 19 2020, @11:39PM (#945547)

    FTFA

    By the new millennium, it was nearly ubiquitous in homes

    WTF does "nearly ubiquitous" mean? Is is like Monty Python "nearly" seeing one camel? Most homes I know use inkjets, if they have any printer at all.

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  • (Score: 2) by Bot on Monday January 20 2020, @12:07PM (1 child)

    by Bot (3902) on Monday January 20 2020, @12:07PM (#945757) Journal

    laser > inkjet if you don't use regularly.

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 21 2020, @04:34AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 21 2020, @04:34AM (#946165)

      This is precisely why I talked my parents into replacing their inkjet printer with a laser printer. They print so infrequently that by the time they want to print something, they need a new cartridge. And the cartridges are ridiculously expensive.

      Ink remains better for somethings, but, unless you're regularly printing, you're better off with the laser printer. It doesn't take that many replaced ink cartridges to pay for a pretty nice laser printer where you'll definitely get to use all of the toner.

      Personally, if I ever need my own printer, I will likely get a color laser printer as I don't do a ton of printing but when I do, it would be nice to have colors.