Re: Software & Breakout board question
If it doesn’t have a built in parallel port for I/O, a $8 pci parallel port card can be purchased. Linuxcnc isn’t the easiest to configure though.
If going that route be aware not all cards are a good choice. A bit of searching on linuxcnc.org should point to something suitable.
If depending on the computer for step generation check the latency, it should be possible to do that without installing.
Other than that don't fear the penguin.
The number of options available now is a little overwhelming but for a robust system linuxcnc is still hard to beat.
Anyone who says "It only goes together one way" has no imagination.