Re: Why are laptops no longer made with serial ports?

From: Gary S. (Idontwantspam_at_net)
Date: 06/30/04 

Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2004 12:50:50 GMT

On Wed, 30 Jun 2004 10:38:20 GMT, "Pieter Litchfield"
<pvcl@*nospam*plitch.com> wrote:

>"Seagull" <seagull@aracnet.com> wrote in message
>news:cbt4l60nhk@enews4.newsguy.com...
>> Bonzo <nobody@spam.com> wrote:
>> >
>> > Can anyone think of any product other than GPS that you can buy
>> > at best buy that still uses RS232?
>>
>> That's not the point. The point is that there's a huge install base of
>> industrial, commercial and consumer equipment that speaks RS232 and
>> has for decades. That cannot be replaced overnight. RS232 will need
>> to exist as long as there is a significant amount of technology in
>> use in the world that depends on it.
>>
>This is exactly right. In addition:
>1. USB ports are physically smaller than serial (db-9) connectors, so mount
>easier on a laptop case.
>2. USB devices can be easy plug-n-play under windows. Serial cannot.
>3. USB can handle more bandwidth, therefor a wide variety of devices -
>never try a disk drive on a serial port! The same USB port cana be used to
>hook up and use a printer, modem, disk drive, etc.
>
>So there are a lot of good reasons to have a USB port, especially on a thin
>laptop. You can get either a card with a serial port or a card with a USB

>suspect, is because many legacy devices like autopilots still use rs-232
>connected serial ports. I know my DGPS beacon receiver does.
>
>In any case, if you are really upset about the lack of serial ports on a
>laptop, you can always get a serial port on a card to stick in a slot.
>Peronally, I'd find the right USB serial - USB dongle to work with mine.
>
No one here advocating to have serial ports available is against
having USB ports available on laptops. There are certainly many good
reasons to use them, especially with newer peripherals.

The point is merely being made that many users, while a minority,
still have use for a serial port on a laptop.

It is not an either/or. My laptop has a serial port AND two USB ports.

Happy trails,
Gary (net.yogi.bear)
------------------------------------------------
at the 51st percentile of ursine intelligence

Gary D. Schwartz, Needham, MA, USA
Please reply to: garyDOTschwartzATpoboxDOTcom

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