>This client had a label printer running off a serial port on machine A and wanted to print labels on that printer from machine B.
>At that time there was no way to share a serial port, so I wrote a DCOM app running on Machine A that was accessed by machine B.

Wasn't it easier to share a printer, back then? I know it became quite complicated a dozen years ago...
Nowadays I have a printer sitting somewhere in the attic and have managed to not install any printer drivers on any of the machines for at least five years. Maybe one or two old laptops have them. I simply find so many reasons not to print, the administration of printing being the main one. It used to be simple, now it's actually the showstopper.