This is why I never buy ink jet printers, and I also usually buy thoroughly-used office printers.
I have a 14 year old HP office laser printer (P4515x). After replacing the main cartridge (with a third party one!) and upgrading the RAM, it works fine, and it plugs into my ethernet. MacOS recognized the bonjour protocol using the generic PostScript driver. It works fine plugged into my 10 gigabit ethernet switch with a cat 6 cable.
I mean, it's 2d printing; this is something we've more or less nailed since the 90s (more or less with the advent of PostScript I think?); as long as the computers in my network can speak the protocol, I don't really see what I'm missing out on by not having a new printer...except subscription fees.
I'm using my ink jet to decorate my home with my own photographs. Borderless printing on high quality thick glossy photo paper, photo rugs and other types of paper is crucial and completely impossible with new or old office printers. The fidelity and color saturation just isn't there. Even the newest color laser printers are so far behind that they're unusable for this purpose.
I'm not saying it doesn't work for you, I'm saying it doesn't work for me and answering the question "what is one missing out on".
Yep, that's totally fair. I replied in a sister response, but I'll admit that my response was probably a bit reductive and a bit too me-centric.
In fairness, I do think a lot of people really just have a printer around for the same reasons that I do, which is to print out primarily text documents, in which case I don't think most people would be missing a lot getting an old black and white laser printer. I have seen people spend a lot of money on printers and cartridges just to print out three pages of text every couple months, and those people would probably benefit from a cheap, old, black and white laser printer.
That's fair; all I ever really print are documents (academic papers, lecture notes, and forms that I need to sign). The printer I mentioned is black and white, so color isn't on my radar.
I'll admit that maybe I was a bit reductive with my statement, let me amend it a bit: for a large percentage of common printing jobs, I don't think a lot of people are missing out by opting to not buy a new printer (except subscriptions).
I have a 14 year old HP office laser printer (P4515x). After replacing the main cartridge (with a third party one!) and upgrading the RAM, it works fine, and it plugs into my ethernet. MacOS recognized the bonjour protocol using the generic PostScript driver. It works fine plugged into my 10 gigabit ethernet switch with a cat 6 cable.
I mean, it's 2d printing; this is something we've more or less nailed since the 90s (more or less with the advent of PostScript I think?); as long as the computers in my network can speak the protocol, I don't really see what I'm missing out on by not having a new printer...except subscription fees.