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Comment by bmitc | Hacker News Reader

I also had hell even with an Intel Macbook Pro. This whole just works thing Apple has been able to project is unfortunate. I have refused using Apple products from work because of how poorly their products integrate. It's not Dell. It's Apple. Any other monitor manufacturer will have the same issues.

Apple also refuses to implement a protocol that allows controlling the brightness and volume of a non-Apple monitor from the keyboard or even macOS itself. It's infuriating. The only monitors it works with are Apple's and the two overpriced Apple-sanctioned LG monitors sold in the Apple Store.

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I've had good luck with the Lunar app - it manages my Dell and LG monitors on an M2. (No affiliation) https://lunar.fyi

I use an app called MonitorControl on a M1 16" MBP running Sonoma that adjusts both the MBP screen and external HP 25f monitor. It adjusts the brightness and contrast of whichever screen the cursor is in.

Right, but that's part of the point. Apple should just have this inside macOS.

From MonitorControl's GitHub README, emphasis mine:

> Most modern LCD displays from all major manufacturers supported implemented DDC/CI protocol via USB-C, DisplayPort, HDMI, DVI or VGA to allow for hardware backlight and volume control.

And a blog entry by the author of Lunar, an app mentioned elsewhere for this problem: https://alinpanaitiu.com/blog/journey-to-ddc-on-m1-macs/

These are not examples of "just works". Apple intentionally does these things to cripple integration into non-Apple products.

This kind of whining is basically trolling. 'I've tried nothing and I'm angry it doesn't work!'

A 16" Macbook Pro starts at $2,499. I do expect it to just work with basic peripherals and protocols for them.

I'm just explaining how it doesn't just work, and that I'm perfectly happy not using their products. My comment was also a correction that it's on Apple, and not Dell, as to why Apple products don't work well with non-Apple devices. This is a tactic that Apple uses to try and denigrate non-Apple products and get people to come back to Apple's "premium" versions of those products.

There are clear and easy steps Apple could take, but they won't.

"I don't want to tinker with anything and have everything work out of the box" is Apple's entire value proposition.

That's the one justification that consistently gets upvoted to the top any time someone questions Apple's pricing structure. Please don't change the tune when someone reports a serious ongoing problem.

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