It'd better be, considering how slow parports are compared to everything
else.
I've seen reports of USB<->parport adapters working properly in
comp.os.linux.hardware. Thing is, the people using those adapters
weren't using 'Doze, and they were driving parport printers, not parport
scanners. This may or may not work, depending on whether the software
you're using needs to talk directly to the parport's I/O ports or can be
fooled by software into talking to an emulation of the parport's I/O
ports. Note that most USB<->parport adapters have a physical switch
that can be placed in 2 positions. Try your scanner with that switch in
both positions.
[I've] never ever seen a machine without a "parallel connector".
Macs have never had 25-pin parports, eh?[0] Also, the "Legacy-Free x86
Initiative" was announced a few years ago, and its goal is to get rid of
9-pin serial, parallel, PS/2, and every other port you find on an x86
except for USB, Firewire, VGA/DVI, audio[1], and Ethernet. This is
being done so that motherboard manufacturers can save money, but they're
selling it as a way to reduce new user confusion. Interesting that some
manufacturers have finally started to implement this.
[0] A number of older Macs had 25-pin SCSI ports that had the same DB-25
connector spec as the x86 25-pin parport. Since SCSI pins do different
things and take different voltages, this caused a few people to let the
Magic Smoke out of their peripherals back then.
[1] Unless they want to switch to USB audio, which may be the case.
