Again...all of the above changes nothing. It proves even less.
Indeed, about the only thing that you were actually correct about was only the broadest of statements...that 'LaserWriter family supports at least one other protocol if it supports AppleTalk.'
On the face of it, this is true. However, you fail to grok deeper understanding. Indeed, the most flexible of all of the Apple LaserWriter printers (the LWIIg) had ports for AppleTalk/LocalTalk, PC RS-232 serial, Ethernet, and SCSI.
Seems quite the choice, doesn't it? However....it actually wasn't.
In order, the RS-232 was a PC serial connection.....the Mac LWIIg driver was and is not compatible.
The Ethernet port is not the present day implementation of Ethernet...but rather the earlier un-integrated transponder implementation. To actually use this port, one must find the additional Ethernet transponder dongle required to make it compatible with present day applications (good luck finding one of those, it's been over 20 years since they were produced...but I imagine that if you were really DYING to find one and had more spare time than sense you might locate one someplace in a third world country. I won't even bother to explore the cable jack mismatch.)
And, finally, the SCSI port. Sorry...this was only to support an external Hard drive for font storage and downloading. It is not useable as a print interface.
Lots of ports. It made for good advertising, but that was about the extent of it....especially in a Mac application. If one really worked at it, one could use something else at that time. If you had a LWIIf or earlier, then you did not even have all of those choices...as pointless as they were. Sorry, these days for all intents and purposes they are AppleTalk printers only.
My initial post stands.
....sT
