If you're like me, you might still have an older LaserWriter or StyleWriter laying around, and might have problems using them on newer Macs.
Our family's first Mac came with an Apple Personal LaserWriter 300, and I have yet to purchase what most people consider to be a better printer. No, it doesn't print color, but when you compare its print quality to that of any inkjet printer, the difference is astounding.
Recently, I upgraded my PowerMac 9600 to a G4/450 Mhz processor. After installing the card, I discovered a problem: My PowerMac would not sync with the printer. The only way was to turn on Virtual Memory, in order to slow the computer down. Well, when you work with music and video the way I do, Virtual Memory just doesn't cut it. So I devised a solution: Make a cheap printer server out of a slower machine! I had an old Mac of the Pizza Box era laying around (A Quadra 605), and figured I could put it to good use. This machine had a blank hard drive, and no CD-ROM drive, making installation of any Mac OS very difficult. Using a copy of Apple's older boot disk, I copied the files (which Apple has generously released to the public for free.) onto it. After installing all the necessary system software, I hooked up the printer to the modem port, and ran a printer cable between the printer ports of the 9600 and Quadra. I went to the chooser, clicked on my LaserWriter, chose the port, then clicked the "Setup" button, and checked the box to make it a shared printer. Then I ran AppleTalk over the printer port on both machines, and voila! My own printer server. I also turned on file sharing, so any new fonts I install on my computer I can copy over to the print server. I figured that since all would use it for is printing, I unchecked the "Warn if machine was shut down improperly" box in the General Controls control panel, and disconnected my monitor and keyboard. All I do is turn it on, and I can use my extremely old printer (going on ten years!) with my G4 equipped PowerMac 9600, using the Quadra as a go-between.
To see what else a Quadra 605 is capable of, check out Danamania.com. The entire site is hosted on a Quadra 605, with a whole section dedicated to it.