[hexmiles]

I know that it is a heavyweight solution, but it could be useful for some situations with old driver/devices/applications. I have some old hardware that is compatible only with pre-WinNT OS, and I could do something similar to provide a simple solution for the end user.

[Narishma]

Would such old hardware even be able to run a modern browser needed for this?

[hexmiles]

Sorry, I wasn't clear. By old hardware, I meant peripherals connected to the computer via serial or USB. We are at a level of performance where running an entire VM as a driver is kind of feasible, if wasteful.

[jillesvangurp]

It's not that wasteful if you don't need this stuff most of the time. I have an old HP laser printer from 2008 or so. Nearly 20 years old at this point. Works fine but HP does not provide new drivers and the current x86 ones for my mac will stop working when Apple stops supporting x86 emulation. HP could fix this but they probably don't want to. There likely is a decent Linux driver for this thing. A solution like in the article, or qemu or docker with some way to access this thing over USB could probably get the job done.

I rarely print anything in any case; which is why replacing this thing is not a really a priority for me. I print something maybe once or twice per year at best at this point. It works and does the job. I can get replacement toner cartridges on Amazon. There are decent non branded ones that are really affordable. I've only ever bought two, I think. I just don't print a lot. If somebody provides something that works indefinitely, I might still be using this thing in another 20 years.

[CodeWriter23]

You run old operating system in browser as a gateway.