Originally Posted by
A_Camera
Yes, there is a cheaper way, and that is the UC100 way. Why buy a dinosaur PC, go through the troubles of using parallel port when for an additional $60 you can use the PC you most probably already have? Apart from that, if you have an old PC you can still use that with the UC100 because it is definitely MUCH better than using a parallel port, just like OlfCNC is saying.
But sure, on a very tight budget a free (or almost free) PC with a free software and a free OS is better than a commercial software like Mach3 and Windows10. The disadvantage is that with no Linux experience life can be a PITA with LinuxCNC.