by Eric Fenton

Created on: April 14, 2008

As long as your computer has a serial port, there's no reason not to use a serial keyboard. USB keyboards don't have any added benefits over serial keyboards except for the greater prevalence of USB ports on computers than serial ports.

USB, or Universal Serial Bus, is an extremely useful computer hardware/software system that lets you connect almost any device to your computer. The great thing about USB is right in the name - it's universal. That means that instead of having one port for your keyboard, another for your mouse, and a third for your printer (the way it used to be with PS/2 keyboard/mouse connections and LPT1 serial printer connections), you can connect everything using just one type of port. USB is extremely powerful and very useful, which is exactly why you should take advantage of a serial keyboard if you have the option to. Many computers now, especially desktops, have both serial and USB connections. The one problem many people have with USB is just that there are too many things that use it to connect to the computer! This means that there's no space left for a keyboard, especially if you have an unused serial port waiting to be used for your keyboard.

Also, serial keyboards are less expensive and offer all the same functionality, so there's no reason not to buy one. However, there are a few cases in which you would want to use a USB keyboard over a serial one. If you want your keyboard to be wireless, chances are it's going to connect via USB. There are also many gaming and other specialty keyboards that are only available on USB.

For most regular applications, though, using a serial keyboard is easier, cheaper and works just as well. If there's a serial port on your computer waiting to be used, indulge it and plug in your keyboard. The truth is, serial ports are a dying breed. They are slower and far less universal than USB, but while you've got them, you might as well use them. You can always use a USB hub to increase the number of USB ports on your computer, but this causes major lags in performance and slows down your computer quite a bit.

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