All I have is usb and a little D shaped female for a monitor, I think, and a ethernet socket.
Wow, that's bare.
what I don't get is if serial is old hat why cant the new sheriff in town do the same job as the old bloke
Oh, it can. The problem is it's more expensive to implement. USB is a very complex (and by some, much hated, with reason at times) interface, RS232 is very, very simple.