By Lindsay
Once upon a time printers were very expensive. This was back in the old dark days - the 1980's. They had to be shared. Cheap personal printers used dot matrix printing - with ribbons, and ink and other stuff. The good quality printers (like laser printers) were very expensive. A Print Server was used to share these expensive printers. Print servers required liecnces per user (expensive) after all it was only fair since printers were expensive.
And the IT department felt justified in monitoring printer use, per user, because they had the tools that allowed that to happen.
Well the printer companies started to develop lower cost printers. Personal printers. Printers that didn't need an IT department to connect and use. They were even allowed to be shared between users. Soon black and white laser printers broke the $500 barrier. Everyone wanted their own one. Large printers/fax/copier systems could be connected to the network by themseves. They didn't need a print server - they did that all themselves. And they didn't need user licences - anyone on the network could use them.
So today we now have cheap personal black and white laser printers for less than $100, and colour laser printers for less than $300. Printers are once again personal - everyone can have their own.
So why is it that management still don't get everyone their own printer???
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