Planned obsolescence through discontinued software support is just as effective. Surely you have heard of people who buys a new computer or device with the latest version of the operating system, but can't print to their printer because the maker did not release drivers for the new operating system.

You can avoid this pitfall by looking for standard printer language support in printers. PCL and Postscript are the two major printer languages. All operating system released in the last two decades should have generic PCL and Postscript drivers built-in. If your printer maker did not make a driver for your operating system you will still be able to use the generic drivers to print, although without the bells and whistles.

Most laser printers support PCL and Postscript. One exception I have found are the lower end Canon laser MFP that do not support PCL or Postscript.

Most inkjets are use your host to render the printout and do not support PCL or Postscript. The exception being the higher end HP OfficeJets which do.