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Comment by khedoros1 | Hacker News Reader

> What laptop does have Ethernet, infiniband, USB-A/B/C, thunderbolt 2.0, miniDisplayPort, MiniUSB, MicroUSB, RS232, Centronics, PS/2, VGA, EGA, PCMCIA, SCSI, eSATA, S-video, etc?

Yes, "every" port is ridiculous. In particular, I think most people would happily do away with anything that hasn't been in wide use in new hardware over the last decade.

I like machines with a port for wired network, a port or two for wired video, an SD slot, and 3-4 USB ports in a mix of USB-A and USB-C. For a Mac, I'd argue that some Thunderbolt ports would make good sense, too. I'd rather have my laptop be a self-contained system than have my bag filled with the half-dozen converter dongles that I'd need to provide the connectivity that I use with my current machine.

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Thunderbolt 3 is aimed to replace all currently existing ports, even a charging port, and that's great.

When my current machine dies, hopefully >5 years from now, I'll have the opportunity to evaluate new machines based on my current needs and where the market's at then. The company that gets my money will be the one that matches closest to what I want, not necessarily what's being marketed as the Next Big Thing at that time. Between now and then, Thunderbolt will either become dominant, or fall by the wayside like Firewire did.

> or fall by the wayside like Firewire did.

There are reasons for this no happening. TB3 is compatible with USB Type-C port format, it has a very high bandwidth and it's supported by Intel.

Meh. It'll happen, or it won't. The market's volatile and fickle.

It doesn't mean will it happen or not, Thunderbolt 3 is great thing for now.

It's a neat, but very niche, piece of technology. It's not dominant, in any sense of the word. It might be in the future, but it's not a sure thing. The fact that you can find hardware that supports it isn't interesting to me. It'll be interesting when I can be just as sure that a machine will have a TB3 port as I can currently be that it'll have a USB-A port.

One of the things I actually dislike about it: a port can be USB-C without being TB3. That's going to be fun with the plain USB-C port in my laptop.

It's not a niche anymore, Intel 7th gen has native Thunderbolt 3, so no extra chips needed, that should expand its popularity. Actually any modern laptop already comes with a TB3 ports (see Dell/HP/Apple stuff).

> a port can be USB-C without being TB3

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12824538

It doesn't need to be dominant as in "every PC has it" and everyone needs it. Most people, all they need is an iPad.

It is dominant in the market where USB falls short, that's what matters.

Everyone doesn't "need" it. It'll just be nice. As you point out, most people don't "need" anything more than a tablet, and those aren't exactly known for their high levels of connectivity.

> It is dominant in the market where USB falls short, that's what matters.

It isn't dominant in the market yet, and that's my entire point. When it is: cool. I don't have much argument against it (aside from the dongle-hell I'll be living in). But right now, I don't own a device with any version of Thunderbolt, even with several new laptops around.

You like that, and people like other things.

I hate on board ethernet, it's stupid, almost all of them have only one NIC and only 1Gbps, which is laughable in this day, much more in the 4 or 5 years a laptop usually lasts.

So... welcome TB 3.0 (which can be used for 40Gbps daisy chain networking), and 10GbE adapters someday or another.

> almost all of them have only one NIC

Why would you need more than one NIC on a laptop?

Ethernet is ubiquitous in corporate. I'm yet to see an office with Thunderbird ports.

"Thunderbird"...

Haha I didn't even realize I did that. :-)

I'll welcome TB 3.0 ports, in addition to what I have. Expanded functionality is always nice.

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