This post may seem long and random, but that's only because it is. Bear with me. It's actually a nice follow-up to my digital camera post, in that it may make your break from film cameras a little easier.

I'm a huge fan of the Macintosh because I'm a huge fan of what computers let me do. I can create art that transcends my near-complete lack of talent. I can make music CDs. I can buy and sell on eBay. And, yes, the free porn is nice, too. Or so I hear.

But the thing that makes the Mac so great is that, without it, we'd have no idea how incredibly primitive and unforgivable Windows is. Without the Mac, Windows would be the pinnacle of usability and convenience. Indeed, without the Mac to feed off of, Windows would probably never have evolved past version 3.1.

Even today, despite the slick graphics and deceptive marketing claims, the core of Windows, and the very philosophy behind it, is like something we'd have expected from Soviet scientists circa 1981. Millions of Americans are afraid of personal computers, and it's because of our culture's collective trauma at the hands of all the various Windows flavors.

I'm not saying that world peace would be achieved if we all ran OS X, but I am saying that there would be a lot less stress. Machines that can do as many things as a computer can are, by their very nature, going to be complicated. Even the Mac is complicated. But it isn't scary.

But I'm not here to tell you Windows sucks. You probably knew that already. I'm here to tell you that color laser printers suck.

I've never been a fan of inkjet prints from those little desktop blunderbusses. The pictures fade too fast, they smudge too easily, the ink is outrageously expensive, and the quality is hit-and-miss, what with the various paper types and the clogged heads and such. Inkjet printers TOTALLY suck.

But what are your options? Black and white laser printers are certainly affordable, but you don't want to print out your vacation pictures in monochrome drudgery. Color laser printers are just the ticket, except that good ones run into the thousands of dollars. HP's entries into the sub-$1000 categories have been lackluster by most accounts and decidedly feature-starved.

But I can tell you today, with all honesty, that the day of the high-quality, low-cost color laser is upon us. Its name is the Magicolor 2350 EN, and it's brought to us by Konica Minolta. Bless their hearts. We've had one in the office for several months now, and I just got one for my house.

The print quality is exceptional. Photos are clear and the color is well-balanced. Type is readable even down to the the smaller point sizes. Speed is 18ppm for black and white, 4ppm for color. It won't blow the doors off with its color speed, but that's a small sacrifice to make. And it works with all varieties of Windows, Linux, Unix, and Mac OS 9 and OS X.

What knocks this printer out of the ballpark are the bonus features; connectivity through parallel, USB and ethernet, and it's got true PostScript inside (not some hackneyed PostScript emulation, like HP tries to foist upon you).

The machine's a little loud when it's printing, but not so loud it'll wake the family. It's small compared to some of its competition, but it does need clearance on the left and the right for access. The wee, dim LCD display is a disappointment, as is the convoluted menu system. However, many settings can be adjusted by accessing the printer with your favorite web browser, so trips to the menu are joyously rare.

But the price is the thing, I know. If you shop around, you'll find this printer for $850-900. If you go to eBay, you can scoop one for around $750. I got mine at TigerDirect.com, refurbished, for $650, a deal which ended the very same day I found out about it. There are other iterations of this printer (the 2300, the 2350, etc...), but I'm talking here about the 2350 EN. I can't vouch for the others.

So that's it. I just wanted to tell my readers that this printer rocks. You need to get one.
The 2350 EN printer at Epinions.com