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Comment by astrodust | Hacker News Reader

No, Apple feels it's pretty crappy you have to use dongles for everything, but it's crappier if you still have display-only ports like HDMI six years in the future.

This USB-C conversion might be world-ending for people who haven't lived through things like this before. There was a time when notebooks had PS/2 keyboard ports, when they had parallel ports for printing. These have all died, but the conversion was always awkward and painful.

Have a USB computer but a parallel printer? Converter. Have a VGA display but a DVI notebook? Converter. Have an HDMI port but a DVI display? Converter.

The future Apple's trying to force here is where Thunderbolt and USB are ubiquitous and these converters fade into history.

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Have a VGA display but a DVI notebook? Converter. Have an HDMI port but a DVI display? Converter.

Have an HDMI port, but the monitor the client gives you has only a VGA port? In 2016? I didn't look up the model number, but there's no way that monitor is more than a few years old. And it's not some cheap no-name; it's a Dell or HP (not at the office to check, but it's name brand). I didn't know such things were still made. The last time I recall seeing a VGA-only monitor was like twelve years ago.

My point, and a rebuttal to the sibling comment, is that offering legacy ports just drags this out further. If you have to use a dongle, you'll for damned sure make sure the next monitor you buy doesn't require a dongle.

Whereas maintaining a legacy USB port, as requested by the sibling, means I don't have to put USB-C ports on my device because everyone still has a legacy USB port, and I can save a few bucks. And thus here we are in 2016 with me looking at the back of a monitor while thinking, "VGA can't be the only port on this thing".

> If you have to use a dongle, you'll for damned sure make sure the next monitor you buy doesn't require a dongle.

I have to use a dongle. I don't care if the next one requires it or not, because I already have it.

When I bought the original Mac Mini, it had DVI output at a time most people still had VGA monitors. A DVI-to-VGA adapter was provided in the box.

More recently, a new Sapphire GPU came with DVI and DisplayPort outputs. An HDMI adapter was provided in the box.

There's nothing wrong with USB-C. But right now most of us do not have anything compatible with it. My monitors and TV are all DVI/HDMI/DisplayPort. Every peripheral is USB-A. Adaptors for the common cases supported by their previous year's products (USB-A, HDMI, Ethernet) could have been provided by default to make for a much easier time. It's not like they didn't have precedent for making this just work for their customers in the past.

Have a USB computer but a parallel printer? Converter. Have a VGA display but a DVI notebook? Converter. Have an HDMI port but a DVI display? Converter.

My monitor and TV (Dell UltraSharp and Samsung respectively) each have a bazillion types of inputs. Except USB C, of course. The laptop's only job is to have one standard one. It's going to be a while before USB C to X cables are 'standard.'

Parallel printer? That, on the other hand, is relegated to the dustbins of history long ago.

Apple's defenders are painting skeptics as a bunch of Luddites. I can see the argument for USB-C, fine. Two items will be here forever, though: tiny, innocently thin card readers for people who do photos+video, ethernet port for just about anyone who sits in an office. I don't know about you, but I'm sitting at the same desk all day, I choose my Ethernet connection over the wifi one all day, every day. (Well, M-F).

I am old. I remember PS/2 ports, printer ports, 5 1/4" drives, etc. I remember people complaining when the iMac didn't have a floppy. Trust me, this is different. I use HDMI and the common form factor USB every day. It's hard to know what is bad about them. Yes some guy on hacker news can tell you something bad about them, but to the average consumer they are great.

It is true that Apple has forced users to accept some upgrades that were good in the long run. But this is Apple forcing users to give up on many connector types that are extremely common and useful without a compelling benefit.

Proprietary ports clearly benefit the customer.

Yes, exactly. Just plug USB-C into a hub that has the connectors that are popular this year. When new ports come out, replace the $20-40 hub.

What about having at least one classical usb port?

What about giving at least one dongle when buying a machine at 1700$?

Whoosh.

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