this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2025
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My recollection is that USB on windows was kind of a dumpster fire until XP. Or maybe that was just printers in general.
One thing (only good thing) about Vista was that it rationalised Printer (and Scanner) Drivers.
The UI was consistent between printer manufacturers and everything could be accessed through one interface.
Then the Printer manufacturers complained to MS because they couldn’t have infinite branding all over the interface and the feature was dumbed down in 7.
Meanwhile Apple used the same UI for all Printers (based on CUPS) and didn’t even let a company logo appear in the interface.
Not all the Apple CUPS drivers were available for Linux CUPS so unfortunately Linux (at the time) still had their device compatibility issues.
Hell I remember when USB on PCs was basically a set of pins on the motherboard and you had to buy the actual port assembly separately and hope there was somewhere reasonable on your case to mount it. Was going absolutely nowhere on PC until the iMac came and did away with all other ports and no peripherals built in.
I remember my sister winning an iPod and gave it to me, because she didn't need it. I had to run to the computer store in town to purchase a USB deck for my motherboard. Fun times.
What is a “USB deck”?
I can't remember what it's called, and I was drunk last night lol. It was a USB card with pins you slottet into the motherboard, just like GPUs.
Ah a USB card. Yeah those were/are a thing.
Probably a square rectangle of plastic you'd add to your PC, like a CD player, but with a USB connector. And wires/card towards the mobo. Cases always had like 2-4 emplacements for those kind of things on the front.