There are tech purchases you forget.
There are tech purchases you regret.
And then, once in a great while, there’s a tech purchase so solid, so reliable, and so quietly immortal that it fades into the background of your life for more than a decade — still working, still dependable, still not asking for anything.
For me, that device is a Brother HL-2230 monochrome laser printer. And thanks to a trip through my Newegg order history, I now know the exact date it entered my life:
November 28, 2013.
$51.98.
Twelve years later, in 2025, it still prints like it was unboxed yesterday.
That alone is impressive. But the real story is everything this little printer has survived along the way.
The Printer I Forgot I Even Bought
I didn’t even remember when I bought this thing — it’s been that seamless. I only had a vague memory of ordering it from Newegg sometime in the early 2010s, so I went digging through my order history… and sure enough, there it was.
No breakdowns.
No fights.
No “toner subscription.”
No “you must use official supplies” nonsense.
Just… printing.
And I barely print. Maybe twenty pages a year.
But every time I select File –> Print, the HL-2230 wakes up instantly and drops a crisp page in the tray.
No dried ink.
No clogged heads.
No firmware games.
No drama.
It is the anti-modern printer.
What My Tech World Looked Like in 2013
When this little printer arrived in 2013, I was in a completely different computing era — one that feels like a lifetime ago.
Windows
I was on Windows 7, because that’s what sane people used in 2013. Windows 8 existed, but nobody willingly inflicted that on themselves. Microsoft made a desktop OS run like a mobile device to push Windows Phone. It did not do either one well. Windows Phone is now a footnote in history.
Linux
My Linux world at the time I believe was Kubuntu. This was the KDE 4 era — KDE 4.12 — with CUPS handling printing effortlessly.
Mac
By late 2013, I was running macOS Mavericks (10.9) — the brand-new, just-released version that had launched barely a month before I bought the printer.
And through all of that, the HL-2230 never skipped a beat. It worked on every OS, every driver stack, every transition.
This printer has never cared what I’m running — Mac, Linux, Windows, Intel, Apple Silicon — it just shows up and prints. That’s all it has ever needed to do.
This Printer Has Outlived… Well… A Lot
This little $51 printer has quietly survived:
- multiple Macs
- multiple PCs
- more iPhones than I can count
- several Linux distros
- the entire Intel → Apple Silicon transition
- USB 2 → USB 3 → USB-C hubs and adapters
- the death of optical drives
- entire cloud services
- three presidencies — Obama, Trump, Biden, and… Trump again
- three job changes
- two houses, three apartments, and a condo
- one marriage
- the divorce that followed
- and my marriage after that
At this point I’m pretty sure the HL-2230 has witnessed more major life events than some family members.
And it has never once complained.
Brother Accidentally Made a Tank
The HL-2230 came from a brief golden era when Brother accidentally over-engineered their budget laser printers. The plan was the classic razor-and-blades model:
- cheap printer
- expensive toner
- frequent replacements
Except the HL-2230 didn’t follow the script.
- The toner lasts forever
- Generic toner works flawlessly
- The drum lasts longer than the sun
- The mechanics never fail
- And the user — me — never buys another printer
I’m basically the customer who slipped through the cracks of their profit model.
But here’s the thing: Brother still wins — because they earned something better than toner revenue.
They earned trust.
Hyper-Modern Tech Meets a 2013 Printer
Fast-forward to 2025.
My desk now includes:
- An M4 MacBook Air
- A overpowered desktop PC I put together running OpenSuse Tumbleweed and Windows 10
- a small museum of Atari game consoles and computers stretching back to the Atari ST and Atari 130XE.
And this $51 laser printer from the Windows 7 era still fits right in.
It still works like the day I unboxed it.
Honestly, it feels like the HL-2230 should be featured in a museum exhibit titled:
“Exceptional Cases: Technology That Refuses To Die.”
One of My Best Tech Purchases in 40+ Years
In a lifetime of buying hardware — from the Atari 800XL to modern Macs, from audio interfaces to pedal steel gadgets, and a few Raspberry Pis, Picos, and an Arduino — the HL-2230 is shockingly high on the “best purchases” list.
Not because it’s flashy.
Not because it’s modern.
But because it represents everything we’ve lost in consumer tech:
- durability
- simplicity
- user respect
- no subscriptions
- no lock-ins
- no hidden strings
- no nonsense
Just a machine built to do one job well — and keep doing it for as long as you need it. No all-in-one gimmicks, no flaky scanners, no inkjet drama. Just a printer that actually prints. What a concept.
For over a decade, through every OS migration and personal chapter, this printer has shown up, on time and without complaint.
That’s worth celebrating.
If It Ever Dies, I Know Exactly What I’m Buying Next
If the HL-2230 ever gives up — whether next year or ten years from now — I’m buying another Brother laser the same day.
Not out of brand loyalty.
Not out of nostalgia.
But because they earned it.
And until that day comes, this little $51 printer has a permanent place in my office — and now, finally, a permanent place on this blog.
Few printers deserve that honor.
This one does.