serial ports

[Jason White]

D. Curtis Willoughby <speakup at braille.uwo.ca> wrote:

>I think this means we will just have to forget about getting
>the cheapest computer at the cheapest store.  This is not unlike
>buying any other appliance for a blind person to use.

There are suppliers who will construct a machine based on the components you
select, and who will also help you in making the choices, if necessary. I
would expect similar vendors to be available in your country/region.
>
>I have also found that many other vendors such as HP offer computers
>with serial ports.  You just have to insist that a motherboard
>serial port or serial header is not negociable.

I have an HP workstation with a serial port. The newer models also have them.
Mine is also certified to run Linux (Red Hat, specifically), so when I
acquired it at an online auction I knew it was very likely to be well
supported, even though I was running Debian rather than Red Hat. The hardware
was about a year old at that point, having been used by a distributor as a
demonstration machine.

It also came with high-performance features such as 15 KRPM SAS hard drives.
>
>One good way to get a bargin on a computer with serial ports is
>to buy from a used computer store.

Yes, or get a workstation-class machine rather than a regular PC, and buy it
slightly used to bring the price within your budget as I did. They usually
have ECC RAM, high-performance CPUs, good fans and power supplies, etc. Of
course, you could just buy the components and have a comparable system built
for you.