Ports question

[CrackedButter]

My gf recently got a new mac but she wants to use a printer that doesn't have any of the newish ports like USB. Can OSX be compatible with one of these so she could use such old style printers?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=41995&item=6709996168&rd=1

[Jo-Kun]

Hi, what you're pointing us to is a serial/usb cable... teh PC serial connector to be precise...

old style printers have Parallel connections and sometimes MacSerial wich is a little different.

You could try a Keyspan Serial Adaptor, but I tried to hookup a friends old Epson Stylus 3000 to his G5 with one of those: didn't work...

so the best solution is just to buy a new printer I guess...

[cluthz]

Even if you can connect the Printer there's a huge possibility that you won't find drivers for it!
I have an old Stylewriter (connected thru the Printerport on the old beige g3(osx10.2.8)) and i still havent found drivers for it...

[cluthz]

Foound some info about the keyspan usb adapter:
http://www.linuxprinting.org/macosx-faq.html#q_1_5

1.5 Do the Keyspan USB/Parallel adapters work?
Keyspan adapters have been reported by many users as non-functional on Mac OS X, even though it seems to work well on Mac OS 9. Many brands of USB-to-parallel adapters that work perfectly in OS 9 don't work in OS X.

[CrackedButter]

Okay thanks for the help, she isn't going to be happy, she's got 2 printers she cannot use now!