Why no more parallel ports on Dell desktops?

"Why should I allow Hollywood to tell me what I can or cannot do with hardware/software that I've bought and paid for?"

You don't buy software...you license it.

Ted Zieglar

 

Well, there's no reason for MS not to behave this way. With IBM's OS/2
essentially dead and buried, with Linux not gaining (or losing) any
traction on the desktop, there's no incentive for them to act otherwise.

Let's face it, if I were a 3rd party developer, my need for dealing with MS
would be much greater than MS's need for dealing with me.

I also suspect that some of XP's internal print drivers are merely
carryovers from earlier OS's and haven't REALLY been tested. For instance,
XP lists the "IBM Personal Pageprinter" but there's no way in hell that one
of these would actually work under XP - it used a MicroChannel interface
card for it's engine that only ever worked under DOS/Win3.1 or OS/2.

- FM -

 

Depends on the software. Any digital code is getting called software,
but the basic old school definition limits this to programs, not data files.
Most custom apps are owned for control reasons. Wouldn't want to have to
ask permission of a third party to allow changes to key software design
specifically for a company.

KC

"Why should I allow Hollywood to tell me what I can or cannot do with
hardware/software that I've bought and paid for?"

You don't buy software...you license it.

Ted Zieglar

 

< Top-posting corrected. Please don't top-post on Usenet
newsgroups! See this link for the reason why:

http://www.html-faq.com/etiquette/?toppost >

That's as may be. Note that I included hardware in that reference.
NO ONE tells me what I can or cannot do with my hardware, and I see
hardware-based DRM as trying to do just that.

In any case, I've spoken my piece. I believe S/P and PS2 ports are
still valuable. They are all very well supported by still-useful legacy
applications and OS's which may not support USB well, if at all.

I don't agree that "legacy-free" is such a great idea. Period.
That's all I was getting at.


--
Dr. Anton T. Squeegee, Director, Dutch Surrealist Plumbing Institute.
(Known to some as Bruce Lane, ARS KC7GR,
kyrrin (a/t) bluefeathertech[d=o=t]calm -- www.bluefeathertech.com
"If Salvador Dali had owned a computer, would it have been equipped
with surreal ports?"

 

Happy happy, joy joy


More debate on top posting.

 

Your article has a major flaw that many of your belief use:

"The next reason is that it is actually logical that the question should
come before the answer. To quote a poster in another newsgroup:
A. No.
Q. Does top-posting make sense?"

That is not an example of top posting.
That resembles Jeopardy and that is all.
If it were top posting, the question would be in a previous post.
Since I have already read the previous post, I do not need to read it again
before reading the answer.
Some newsgroups top is correct, other bottom is the thing to do.
In these Microsoft newsgroups, both top and bottom are acceptable as well as
inline, please do not try to impose your position on others, you will fail.

 

One minor correction, remove the word "Microsoft" in my last post.

 

Agreed, but I do think that the correct protocol is for people to continue
whatever type of posting is in use. If the first responder uses top posting,
continue it. Same with bottom posting. It's when you mix the two that things
get confusing....

Reality is that both are used in every newsgroup and that ain't gonna
change....

 

Hi!

If it hasn't got legacy ports, then it is not capable or desirable in my
eyes.

They can have my IBM Model M keyboard when they pry it from my cold dead
fingers.

William

 

Hi!

I think that is very well said, especially the bits about DRM in hardware.

Every computer I own is going to run until it will run no more...anything
else would be wasteful.

William

 

Hi!

Keep in mind that a lot of newer printers can emulate at least the IBM
models.

That said, I can say with a 100% straight face that I am currently using an
IBM ProPrinter XL24E. I have at least one XP machine with the drivers loaded
for the ProPrinter. Were it not for a devastating flood, I'd still have and
use the Personal Pageprinter (4216-031)...it was nothing less than reliable
and very, very cheap.

William

 

I'm with you on the IBM model M keyboard, clickety-click. There are PS/2-USB
adapters, for the time when a new motherboard lacks a PS/2 keyboard port and you
want to continue using the model M, of course... Ben Myers

 

Hi!

That's not correct. The higher up models (4216-031, 030) had their own
standard parallel, serial and even Apple ports on them. There was no card
required with those.

I ran my Personal PagePrinter under Windows 2000 SP4 nicely for quite some
time...with an HP Vectra VL6/233 Pentium II computer.

William

 

You need to get out more.

Ted Zieglar

 

No, no, no! If you have not experienced the sheer delight of tapping on an IBM
Model M keyboard, you have not lived! They are simply too well made for anyone,
even the folks out there on the Pacific Rim or those low paid types in Outer
Mongolia, to manufacture them any more.

Way back when, maybe in the 486 or early Pentium days, Dell had a deal with
Lexmark for Model M keyboards with the Dell logo on them. I have one of them
here, too... Ben Myers

 

I stand corrected. I've owned several IBM Personal Pageprinters (4216-020,
IIRC) and they all needed the MCA card.

It was a helluva printer in it's day, the forerunner of the venerable IBM-
Lexmark 4019/4029/4039 series. It used a Ricoh laser engine as I recall.
And the only thing that could even come close to it's speed and quality at
the time was a Canon CX engine coupled with an Adobe "Redstone" board. (As
packaged by QMS).

- FM -

 

On Wed, 21 Sep 2005 01:41:07 GMT, "William R. Walsh"

[. . .]

Have you tried getting a 9 in TV and set it on a shelf right above an
IBM selectric?

 

I do remember IBM keyboards. I also remember Fizzie's tablets and Tinker
Toys, all of which I enjoyed in their time but not enough to have someone
"pry it from my cold dead fingers." I'm not stuck in the past.

--
Ted Zieglar
"You can do it if you try."

 

Then you didn't truly appreciate IBM's keyboards. Nothing has even been
like them. Amazing.

 

lol...I concede! (But I'm still not stuck in the past ;->)

--
Ted Zieglar
"You can do it if you try."