On Thu, 2008-11-06 at 20:38 +0800, Xiaofan Chen wrote: > My new desktop (Acer M1641) still has one IDE, two PS/2 ports, > 2 PCI slots and one serial port, no parallel port. My desktop has no legacy ports. > Many laptops will have no PS/2 ports, no serial port and no > parallel port. Nor does my laptop. > To me PS/2 ports are necessary because sometimes Linux > still has problems with USB mouse and keyboard during > setup or grub screen. Frankly this surprises me. Sounds like you haven't enabled "USB legacy emulation" in the BIOS if you have this issue (or your BIOS is buggy, or you Linux distro is "weird"). I haven't used a PS2 keyboard with any of my linux boxes for quite a while now. > PCI slots are necessary. My TV tuner card is still PCI. And > people who need real serial and parallel port may need to > install PCI card with real serial/parallel port. Hear I'll agree, many cards are still only available in PCI, or at least affordably only PCI. That said, there are many cases now where USB can replace those PCI cards (even TV capture). Still, for now having at least one PCI port is still important to me. > Serial port is always nice to have. I'd like to have two. > USB->Serial port sometimes do not work. Haven't used a "real" serial port in a very long time. The rare cases I've needed to use a serial port the USB->serial adapters worked flawlessly. If you REALLY need serial, a PCI serial card is an option, no reason for the MB to have serial anymore IMHO. > Parallel port is getting rare. Now I can not use the > JTAG debuggers I have (one for ARM, the other for MSP430 > but I have not really used MSP430) after my old desktop > died unexpectedly. Parallel is IMHO completely dead. My printer might have a Parallel port on it, but I probably don't have a cable, and certainly have never plugged anything into it. Works flawlessly under Linux using the USB connection. TTYL TTYL -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist