We were promised that USB-C would solve all our connectivity ... • Aaron Parecki

We were promised that USB-C would solve all our connectivity problems.

Instead, I have two USB-C ports on this laptop, only one of which is Thunderbolt, which is worse because they look identical but act different. Also apparently only some USB-C cables support Thunderbolt too.

Portland, Oregon • 51°F

Sun, Dec 8, 2019 4:17pm -08:00 #usb-c #usbc #thunderbolt

16 likes 15 replies
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- Pelle Wessman twitter.com/voxpelli
  
  Are all four full speed Thunderbolt 3? 😏 macrumors.com/2018/07/19/201…
  
  Mon, Dec 9, 2019 6:32pm +00:00 (via brid-gy.appspot.com)
- Pelle Wessman twitter.com/voxpelli
  
  I guess USB 4 will be a more proper solution, as that will be Thunderbolt 3 packaged as an USB standard, but we will still be stuck with weird cables and stuff :/ (Like the fact that few support full 100W, had a colleague who ran out of battery while charging through a dongle)
  
  Mon, Dec 9, 2019 6:30pm +00:00 (via brid-gy.appspot.com)
- Phil Rosenberg-Watt mastodon.rosenberg-watt.com/@philrw
  
  @aaronpk Right now my laptop is USB-C (and USB-C only). Makes it pretty useless for interoperating with literally every other USB device I own. Did it come with a USB-A adapter? No, that would be admitting something.
  
  Mon, Dec 9, 2019 2:56pm +00:00
- Dmitri Shuralyov twitter.com/dmitshur
  
  Same connector, fast, and inexpensive. Choose two. I’ve had a good experience going from twitter.com/dmitshur/statu… to https://t.co/IEGOw5XxN4. But I realize the transition hasn’t gone well nor quickly for many.
  
  Mon, Dec 9, 2019 12:18pm +00:00 (via brid-gy.appspot.com)
- Dmitri Shuralyov twitter.com/dmitshur
  
  Same connector, fast, and inexpensive. Choose two. I’ve had a good experience going from twitter.com/dmitshur/statu… to https://t.co/IEGOw5XxN4. But I realize it he transition hasn’t gone well nor quickly for many.
  
  Mon, Dec 9, 2019 12:14pm +00:00 (via brid-gy.appspot.com)
- jk twitter.com/karabaic
  
  Yeah, but last time I bought a laptop was in 2013. I fully expect this one to last as long. :) Waiting on long-term reports on the keyboard redesign before I commit, but this emacs geek is happy for a hard ESC!
  
  Mon, Dec 9, 2019 5:13am +00:00 (via brid-gy.appspot.com)
- Aaron Parecki twitter.com/aaronpk
  
  ooh all four are thunderbolt! That probably adds a considerable amount to the cost of it!
  
  Mon, Dec 9, 2019 5:07am +00:00 (via brid-gy.appspot.com)
- jk twitter.com/karabaic
  
  And now I need to find out how much of this applies to the new 16” MPB
  
  Mon, Dec 9, 2019 5:04am +00:00 (via brid-gy.appspot.com)
- Daniel P Johnson twitter.com/teknotus
  
  I talked to someone working on the rollout who was worried about a bunch of potential problems. So for example if you have a USB-C video adapter is it HDMI alternate mode, a USB video card, a thunderbolt video card, a USB UVC video out?
  
  Mon, Dec 9, 2019 4:03am +00:00 (via brid-gy.appspot.com)
- Brian Gomes Bascoy (pera) mastodon.social/@trobador
  
  @aaronpk oh don't worry, the USB Implementers Forum acknowledge all these issues and they promise everything will be fixed with the release of USB4... 🙄 maybe by then we will finally get USB-C hubs too.
  
  Mon, Dec 9, 2019 1:00am +00:00
- rektide de la fay twitter.com/rektide
  
  Ayup!
  
  Mon, Dec 9, 2019 12:56am +00:00 (via brid-gy.appspot.com)
- Aaron Parecki twitter.com/aaronpk
  
  Oh gosh I hadn't heard about USB4 at all yet. Is it going to use the same port as C?
  
  Mon, Dec 9, 2019 12:35am +00:00 (via brid-gy.appspot.com)
- johnbrayton micro.blog/johnbrayton
  
  @aaronpk Agree completely. The USB-C/Thunderbolt situation is a confusing mess.
  
  Mon, Dec 9, 2019 12:34am +00:00
- Aaron Parecki twitter.com/aaronpk
  
  What's really sad is my PC needs 100W which virtually no accessories can provide, so I need to plug in my USB-C hub *and* the laptop's charger anyway
  
  Mon, Dec 9, 2019 12:27am +00:00 (via brid-gy.appspot.com)
- v2.jacky.wtf
  
  This got me a bit curious so I looked up what the differences might be and lol, this is like a reverse XKCD comic. To be honest, the fact that one port can even mimic both of these options is amazing! But now, you have to run around with little lightning bolt stickers for your cables and hardware, lol.
  
  Sun, Dec 8, 2019 4:22pm -08:00

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