Well, I find a lot of Windows hardware drivers to be 'lacking'. In fact
XP still has issues with USB multi-card readers.
I don't know how many people I've talked to with brand new PC's with
built in floppy bay multi-card readers that crash
or lock-up when a card is inserted. Also the way WIndows handles
resources management on machines with a lot of
IRQ's seems broken or at least stupid. It seems especially stupid about
dealing with APIC's, though it does do slightly
 better on machines with real SMP.
Anyway, my primary personal systems are Linux based and I've had no real
issues with core HW driver stability or
performance. USB seems especially solid.

As for PAR/SER dissappearing, I highly doubt it. It might be going away
on the kind of crap I won't buy anyway
(ie DELL, eMachines, etc. consumer desktops) but there's no way in heck
they'll get rid of it anytime soon.
There's just way too much demand from business customers with legacy
connectivity needs. Especially in industrial,
manufacturing, and production companies. In fact a friend of mine makes a
nice living selling add on PCI PAR/SER
boards to make up the demand for customers who require them. (see
http://www.softio.com/index.htm ) Nice boards BTW.
We used to use a lot of them for our industrial/building controls
customers.


  ----- Original Message -----
  From: "Bob Axtell"
  To: "Microcontroller discussion list - Public."
  Subject: Re: [PIC] Why the preoccupation with bus powered
  programmers?
  Date: Sun, 03 Dec 2006 15:47:39 -0700


  tachyon_1@email.com wrote:
  > Very helpful, thank you. I'll check into those recommendations.
  >
  > Also, I wasn't really clear enough when I said 'JDM Like'.
  > What I really meant by that was form factor. Small, simple
  components,
  > and a single 40 pin ZIF socket (and an ICSP connector).
  > USB is fine, though I'd just as soon have Parallel (or Serial).
  >
  Both Serial and Parallel Ports are vanishing, and it will be very
  unusual to see either in a
  new PC. Time marches on.

  Personally, I will miss them both, because Microsoft STILL doesn't
  have
  enough reliability
  in their USB stuff. But that's the way it is going, and railing about
  it
  will do NO good.

  I am hoping that when MS releases XP sp2046 the USB drivers might
  finally work.

  I just recently bought two identical WinXP PCs that had a DB9 serial
  port in them. In
  one PC, the DB9 serial port won't work right out of the box. But the
  USB
  section works,
  so I use a USB<>serial cable and all is well. Go figure...

  --Bob

-- 

Search for products and services at: 
http://search.mail.com

-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist