Forgive the intrusion from a dyed-in-the-wool PC guy, but I need some
Mac info, and these groups looked like a good place to start.

We have(had) a Wacom Artz II graphic tablet hooked up to our Win98SE PC
for some time now. My daughter is going of to University for a graphics
program, which uses Macs(not too sure which model just yet), which will
presumably use Mac OS X.

It appears that newer Macs do not have a serial port(which is what the
Artz II has), but Keyspan have a product that hooks into the USB of a
Mac and spits out a 9 pin serial port connector.

Will this combination work. The Wacom site says that no serial tablets
are supported by Mac OS X, but the Keyspan says it will work.

Has anyone done this?

Will it work, and what drivers/programs would be required?

thanks in advance
Richard

In article
<WnM_a.156303$4UE.47119[at]news01.bloor.is.net.cable.rogers.com>, Richard
Wilson <wlorcb[at]rogers.com> wrote:

> Forgive the intrusion from a dyed-in-the-wool PC guy, but I need some
> Mac info, and these groups looked like a good place to start.
>
> We have(had) a Wacom Artz II graphic tablet hooked up to our Win98SE PC
> for some time now. My daughter is going of to University for a graphics
> program, which uses Macs(not too sure which model just yet), which will
> presumably use Mac OS X.
>
> It appears that newer Macs do not have a serial port(which is what the
> Artz II has), but Keyspan have a product that hooks into the USB of a
> Mac and spits out a 9 pin serial port connector.
>
> Will this combination work. The Wacom site says that no serial tablets
> are supported by Mac OS X, but the Keyspan says it will work.
>

I recently sold an ArtZ II with a Griffin iMate USB-Serial adapter. The
combination will work fine with OS 9, but not with OS X. The problem
isn't the adapter, it's that Wacom has no recent-OS X drivers. You can
probably use it as a kind of super-mouse, but not as a true graphics
tablet.

In general, you're better off going "organic" with your peripherals.
Vendors of this kind of stuff put as little time and $$ into the
drivers as they can get away with, so K-I-S-S. Wacom makes some cheaper
(and not as nice) USB tablets tham might be okay. In the future she'll
want a tablet that's the equivalent ($$!) of the ArtZ.