One problem is that they often couldn't be daisy chained, the connector on the back was only useful for an actual printer. So if everybody started doing it you would have to swap them constantly which is a headache. So they're mostly used for software where it's going to be the only thing running on the box.

I find it interesting that they didn't make it into the USB era where you could easily have something that does some actual processing on the device that makes it a serious challenge to reverse engineer.

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chrisldgk 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

They did carry over into the USB era! I specifically remember my stepdads copy of Cubase (music production software) requiring a USB dongle to open.

	▲	bonzog 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Ditto - and there's also the "iLok" dongle used by loads of virtual instrument & effects plugins for DAWs.

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jofla_net an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

I could have sworn, back in my day, on WinNT4 we successfully chained a red and white pair from Autodesk. One for AutoCad, and either Mechanical Desktop or 3ds Max.