What you suggested was to lose all hotplug facility completely.
Nope. Let's look at what he sad:
echo "usblp" >> /etc/hotplu/blacklist.d/unwanted
Guess what "usblp" is? It's the module that talks to usb printers. You know, "lp" as in "lpt1". They used to call it that, right? And you are running a 2.6 kernel aren't you? Under 2.4 kernels usb printing was handled by usbcore, which would have meant disabling all of usb.

And the issue is that if the host OS (Linux) is controlling the usb printer, the client OS under VMWare (Windows) can't talk to it.

And since I only have Windows on this box because there is no Linux driver for it I figure I'm safe in saying I don't need the Linux system talking to the printer.

Now, by instructing Linux to not load this one module, the printer stays available for the Windows instance to use. I don't modify my kernel, so the method my distro uses to push security updates still works. And the module is still there so if someone finishes a decent Linux driver a couple of months from now, I just delete the line from the blacklist and it starts working.


Bah, I'm done biting on this troll.