Who would buy a new piece of gear if they can get the one
they already have working instead of throwing it away?
If you can get something working without spending a penny on it and it can
do the job thats one thing but the OP was asking about an Appletalk
printer that's so old it doesn't have a parallel port. The final
generation of Apple laser printers like the 12/640ps and the 16/660 had
parallel ports on them and they work fine with PCs. I've got a 12/640ps
which I'm using with Linux (it's postscript so it works great). The
earlier generation Laserwriters were Appletalk or Ethertalk only (the
protocol on Ethernet was Apple proprietary, I've never gotten Linux to
talk to it directly over Ethernet but I admit I haven't tried very hard
because I rather use CUPS). Assuming you can even buy an Appletalk board
for a PC you wouldn't want to do that when for the same money you can buy
a modern printer. If the OP's printer is something other than a
Laserwriter then the only reason to use it would be if you were running a
museum. Could you imagine using a daisy wheel printer in this day and age?