Interesting take, but probably overkill in this case:
* the USB-to-serial drivers are standard and included in every OS. Even if 10 years from now they weren't, it's easy to fire up a VM and get it working
* Serial cables are a standard thing for anyone working with old hardware. And even if someone, 10 years from now, doesn't have one, it's not hard to rig something up, maybe even using jumper cables
* That leaves the usb-to-serial adapter itself. While these might be more at risk on first glance, the chips they work on are still produced by the millions, and I can't envision a future where those things would cost more than a few bucks new or even from places like eBay
I mean I totally get this, and I have done similar things in the past (e.g. I have a box with a PCI SCSI controller and an ISA SCSI controller, together with a dozen or so different SCSI cables and terminators, in case I need to dump yet another SCSI device...) but doing this for serial cables just seems... unnecessary?
* the USB-to-serial drivers are standard and included in every OS. Even if 10 years from now they weren't, it's easy to fire up a VM and get it working
* Serial cables are a standard thing for anyone working with old hardware. And even if someone, 10 years from now, doesn't have one, it's not hard to rig something up, maybe even using jumper cables
* That leaves the usb-to-serial adapter itself. While these might be more at risk on first glance, the chips they work on are still produced by the millions, and I can't envision a future where those things would cost more than a few bucks new or even from places like eBay
I mean I totally get this, and I have done similar things in the past (e.g. I have a box with a PCI SCSI controller and an ISA SCSI controller, together with a dozen or so different SCSI cables and terminators, in case I need to dump yet another SCSI device...) but doing this for serial cables just seems... unnecessary?