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USB-C hubs and my slow descent into madness - Dennis Schubert
(overengineer.dev)
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this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023
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Just imagine how easy things would have been if these 3000$+ computers had the necessary ports built into them.
3 usb type-c and two type-A ports, hdmi out, sd card reader should be bare minimum. A 3.5mm headset jack and collapsible rj45 or very least rj45 to usb adapter should also be included on machines intended for professional use.
Edit: for those complaining about having to disconnect multiple cables, sure you can buy a hub or dock if you want ease of use. But that would still be possible on a machine with its own ports. You don't have to have a working dock to actually use the machine.
That would only solve some problems. My typical problem of not wanting to wire up 6 or 7 cables every time I switch between home-office and office would still go unsolved. Just plugging in a hub that already has keyboard, mouse, headset, monitors, and preferably even power attached is very nice to be actually flexible with the setup (also when quickly moving to a conference room and back).
You do realize that you can have both, right? Your laptop could have 6/7 ports but you could choose to use a usb-c hub for convenience. And, if you're travelling or your hub breaks, you still have all the ports in your laptop.
Which is, why I said, it would only solve some problems (stronger highlight this time). Sure I can have both. But the hub would still be a problem if it broke after not even a year and/or burns my house down.
I have some small usb adapters I keep around for travel that work with all my laptops. They work fine in a pinch for my desk it my main hub goes down.
The problem is they stopped making the dumb click in docks that just connected right to the motherboard. I think they did this for "thin" and also those docks just worked too well, and basically never died. And you needed one from the laptop vendor because they were model specific. But man, the USBC crap is STILL not really an improvement.
But… but then you’d have to make them 0.01mm thicker.
That's the excuse they feed you for sacrificing on usability, durability and also added expenses of buying more and more dongles.
No thanks, I plug 2 cables into my MBP and get:
Contrast that with my old MBP that had “all the ports”, I’d have to plug multiple things in, I still had to use hubs, and it struggled to drive 2 monitors. No thanks.
You can use a thunderbolt hub if you want. The point is that with every other brand, you don't have to.
My Latitude has 3 USB-A ports, micro-SD, RJ-45, HDMI, audio jack, Dell power connector, and a full-sized thunderbolt USB-C port that you can also use to charge your laptop while doing all the things that Apple's mandatory USB-C ports do.
So now if I'm at my desk I can plug one cable just like you, in the same hub that you do. And if I'm on the go and need to plug something in... well let's just say it's a pleasure of mine to lord it over the Apple-only guys that I don't need 300€'s worth of cable spaghetti to connect to the beamer in the meeting room.
I will never get how and why Apple shills defend the shit that Apple does. How does proving less functionality benefit ANYONE but Apple? This behavior is so obviously against your own interest! Like, get whatever laptop you want, I don't care and I see that Apple does some things right. This isn't one of them and there is zero objective reason to defend them for removing standard connectivity from their laptops.
Last I checked my work MBP M1 has an hdmi port and 2 ways to charge it. Don't need more than that in a conference room. For home use, a dock is a must, since I'm not unplugging a million connectors every time.
Besides, my Dell XPS laptop doesn't even have that hdmi port. It's not just an Apple problem, everyone did it now.
They want the product because it looks fancy and they don't know any better about the specs to realize it's overpriced. Or they do know and don't care because it's a status symbol. Which is worse, really.
I mean the first iPhone couldn't even use the music on the phone for ringtones. There were like 10 pre-loaded rings and that was it. Meanwhile my Windows smart phone could use any MP3 on the SD card (which could also be used to play music). But people were lining up around the block for the iPhone even though it was objectively worse that the other phones at the time. It was just shiny and didn't require thinking to use, just blind acceptance.
Who decided that's a work requirement? 2 usb c, 1 usb a, and hdmi is about all the average person needs for work use. Anything more than that and you should just get accessories. Usb hubs aren't a new concept.