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Serial and parallel port on notebooks

-260 points posted to Accessories (Keyboards, etc.), Laptops by mish666uk 09/03/07

Reintroduce serial ports and parallel ports on notebooks. As developers we deal with many hardware items that require serial or parallel communication, and it would be great to have these on notebooks once again. I hear so many people bemoan the fact they don't have them any more!

rsimon
09/03/07		 Most of the world does not want these any more. If you must be a techno dinosaur get a USB serial/parallel adapter or expresscard
jordann
09/03/07		 Buy a USB > Serial adapter.
mugunth
09/03/07		 they make the notebook bulky and larger and cluttered...
pell
09/03/07		 RS232 and/or IEEE1284 is really needed by some users. For example: system administrators (some network hardware is programmable only via serial port), developers of electronic hardware (there are a lot of test platforms for integrated circuits and analog electronic components) and so on.

Do not argue that this is very important and highly demanded option (I work at integrated circuits development company) but I *do* argue that this option is needed for all users. They who really need (for example company I work at) such an options could easily buy a special hardware (PL-2303 based etc). Others (roughly 99.9%) should not pay for option they will never need and use.

Denote this idea.
jorge
09/03/07		 Its all USB now, just upgrade or get your developer license hack to move its hacks to USB.
winoffice
09/09/07		 Serial and parallel ports are things of the past for the most part. I will not be able to understand it if Dell still offers these ports on desktops and servers (they offer no pictures of the back of the desktops and servers as far as I know, so I am not sure). Besides, if you are developers, then you probably work exclusively with USB and IEEE 1394/FireWire ports anyway.
winoffice
10/30/07		 .chris, it is not practical for developers to use serial and parallel ports today because both of them (especially serial) are painfully slow compared to the standards of today.
cosh
10/30/07		 Slowness isn't really relevant. It's what you do with it that counts. Serial and parallel are fantastic for their sheer simplicity. Never again will we be able to go back to such brilliantly simple connectivity. I find it terribly annoying that they want to push people over to digital television in Britain and have been switching off some of the old transmitters. If a technological apocalypse happens we'll be bloody sorry for losing this simpler technology.

If I owned a computer company, not one machine would leave the door without at least two serial ports, two parallel ports, and a dual 5 1/4 and 3 1/2 inch floppy drive. I'd also create the world's first 5 1/4 inch floppy drive connectable via USB to ensure compatibility with other systems. And I'd insist on drivers being available for everything for 16-bit programs. And I'd be bankrupt in a week.

That's my 22 cents.
winoffice
12/08/07		 cosh: what????
 
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