A random musing, which occurred to me as I was browsing some posts in the fediverse about people buying, or seeking recommendations for, laptops. (The MNT Reform comes up quite a bit, as do the Framework machines.)

I’m sure that, at some point, I’ll buy another laptop, which will, of course, be new to me.

But I am struggling to foresee when, or if, I might next buy a new laptop, in the sense of being the first owner of that laptop.

With the number of second hand, ex-corporate, machines on the used market, at a very reasonable price, for my needs - as they are at the moment, anyway - I’m struggling to see why I would buy a new machine.

I bought a laptop last week, because of some of the bits in it that I wanted.

A 7th generation i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, 256GB SSD, touch screen, and in fantastic, working, condition.

£110.

I’ve done what I wanted with the 4G modem and wiring, and that’s left me with a perfectly functional laptop, which I’m sure I’ll put to good use, or move on, at some point.

The machine on which I am writing this is another, very similar, machine - slightly faster processor, more RAM, bigger SSD.

£190.

And I love it. It is fast, it does everything I need, it has multiple USB-C ports, it is lightweight, and it is easy to repair / upgrade.

Sure, it is from 2017/2018, and, at some point, I might need to spend some more money on it to replace the battery.

But that’s dead easy to do - perhaps 5 minutes in total - and thank goodness that I can do something like that, rather than consigning it to the scrap heap, or for server-only use, because of a battery which is not readily replaceable.

As long as others - especially companies - continue to buy new laptops, perhaps I need never buy a new laptop myself…?