On Sat, Aug 26, 2017 at 01:01:10PM -0400, Hendrik Boom wrote:
> > That's PS/2, not RS232.
>
> True, true. And there seem to be two different sizes of those
> round plugs in use. At least, I've seen adapters to connect between
> the two sizes.
>
> My system isn't as obsolete as I thought.
>
> I'm still seeing ads for single-board computers where the console is
> expected to be connected through a serial port.
>
> So maybe serial is still alive.

"still alive"? You mean, something like this:
https://angband.pl/tmp/serials.jpg I assembled just a week ago.
No one bothers making a single-board computer _without_ serial anymore.

On x86, it's also a must if you do any sort of kernel debugging: netconsole
doesn't work if you run a bridge, containers, VMs, your network card was
designed during a different moon phase than the motherboard, or the
planetary alignment wasn't right during their manufacture. And USB console
(on the debuggee's side) is the first thing to go down during a
crash/suspend/resume.

But it's inadequate for connecting a mouse. Perhaps could be made adequate
with some better protocol design, but this ship has sailed.

Meow!
-- 
⢀⣴⠾⠻⢶⣦⠀ 
⣾⠁⢰⠒⠀⣿⡁ Vat kind uf sufficiently advanced technology iz dis!?
⢿⡄⠘⠷⠚⠋⠀                                 -- Genghis Ht'rok'din
⠈⠳⣄⠀⠀⠀⠀