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Comment by benguild | Hacker News Reader

I wonder if there were a lot of support calls about people whose keyboards wouldn’t connect, etc.

Unlike a touch screen device, folks may not understand that disabling Bluetooth for no reason has input consequences

So there's multiple comments already saying this, but I don't understand how what you wrote jives with the paragraph of that post:

>"The prompt warns that I "won't be able to use a Bluetooth keyboard or mouse," despite the fact my Mac mini already has a USB keyboard and mouse plugged in. Indeed, the Mac isn't using any Bluetooth devices, and macOS knows this but doesn't care. Moreover, the Bluetooth prompt appears even when all Bluetooth-related features are disabled such as AirDrop and Handoff. There's no "intelligence" to the prompt."

macOS, like Linux, Windows, FreeBSD or whatever, knows what the device tree looks like. It knows whether there are any BT devices paired, what their capabilities are, whether the input peripherals are USB or not. Can you explain why making a prompt conditional on whether it'd disconnect the last input devices or not would not have reduced support calls perfectly well? Why do you think that paragraph is wrong, and macOS must be stupid and generic with a warning regardless?

Some devices report as keyboards in macOS but are not. My Logitech mouse for whatever reason shows as both. I’m assuming it’s the way Logi handles the extra buttons.

Exactly this. Like if you're in the 95th percentile on tech literacy it makes no sense. Congrats. Here's a medal. If you're in the 30th percentile and you turn everything off because you're paranoid about stuff you don't understand being turned on but you don't realize you're about to disconnect your mouse it may at least give pause.

Yes that’s definitely why this has been added. It’s kind of discourteous though to people who don’t fall into that category. Why not offer an I know what I’m doing switch that needs to be activated with a series of CLI commands with big warnings.

you're using applianceOS, power users are not the target market, people with too much money are

I’m a power user, but I also like not worrying about whether my WiFi will work today. And I don’t like dealing with whatever WSL thinks about file permissions in this version.

There doesn’t exist anything else at the developer-friendliness / price / build quality point Apple’s machines exist at.

It's just bad design. Rather than a confirmation/warning/nag Apple could've altered the existing UI to make it clear what devices would be disabled. Show a connected device count next to the on/off switch with little mouse/keyboard/etc icons. The interface should be clear, discoverable, and consistent. It shouldn't throw unanticipated popup windows and warnings at the user.

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