qupada

Even for devices that will stand the test of time on their own, they’re still being unnecessarily modified by the addition of extra nonsense to support AI boondoggles.

I was talking to our company’s account manager from one major PC manufacturer, he agreed that a generation of laptops with a likely-to-be-useless-in-future Copilot button permanently emblazoned on their keyboard will really date this era.

The computers themselves will be fine - they have some extraneous hardware but that doesn’t really detract from their usability - but there’s a better than even chance that logo will exist as a reminder long after memories of what it was supposedly for begin to fade.

You might have to consider buying used.

Even older HP printers are fine (and I know people love to shit on them, but they too used to be perfectly safe and reasonable choices). More or less the safe/unsafe divide coincides with the switch from printers with 2x16 character displays to ones with full colour screens.

I’ve got a 2012-designed (but mine is 2017-built) HP Colour Laserjet CP5225dn, it has none of the modern lock-in shenanigans.

Just gotta find one that’s new enough that consumables are still readily available (fortunately this usually isn’t too difficult), and in good physical condition.