@cstross @markotway or I could not carry any dongles and just have the fucking ports! Y'know, like the old days when people were still making fun of macbooks for being port deficient and forcing you to carry dongles just because "oh look how much slicker the sides look with no ports!"
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@markotway @cstross except no, not everything works with bt because I have to keep taking off my earbuds to charge them and when I connect my controller to my laptop over bluetooth the internet stops working properly and there are all sorts of pairing issues if the airwaves are too crowded, and when doing real work in an industrial setting I also fucking need Ethernet and don't have it on most laptops sold in the last 5 years
This "port minimalism" bullshit needs to stop because it's helping nobody. If you want bluetooth you can use it with or without ports, but if you need more USB ports or Ethernet or a card reader or whatever then oops, time to cough out money on dongles because apple decided laptops need to look like futuristic sex toys with as few ports as possible because "who needs them anyway, you have bluetooth! bluetooth everything! just ignore all the problems inherent to it that can't be fixed because it's inherent to wireless stuff in general!"
This "port minimalism" bullshit needs to stop because it's helping nobody. If you want bluetooth you can use it with or without ports, but if you need more USB ports or Ethernet or a card reader or whatever then oops, time to cough out money on dongles because apple decided laptops need to look like futuristic sex toys with as few ports as possible because "who needs them anyway, you have bluetooth! bluetooth everything! just ignore all the problems inherent to it that can't be fixed because it's inherent to wireless stuff in general!"
@reiddragon @markotway Apple, except at the low end, has gone with Thunderbolt. Which uses the same plug/socket as a USB-C device, *but* carries a bunch of other signals: all the lower levels of USB, also HDMI and DVI, and thunderbolt which AIUI encapsulates PCIe. It’s a full bus system and you can mix and match lower level peripherals. Point is, you should only ever need the one type of port.
I ditched all my pre-USB-C connecters years ago and life is a lot simpler.
@cstross @markotway ah yes, thunderbold, which is a security nightmare because PCIe was never made to be used for external peripherals and so you have to be even more careful about plugging stuff into your computer than with regular USB, and also none of your post addresses the fact laptops these days have like 3-4 ports, one of which goes to charging, and so you're forced to get dongles to get any fucking ports which you claim is somehow acceptable
@reiddragon @markotway Do you even *use* a modern computer? Most of the stuff you’d previousy want peripherals for is built-in.
@cstross @markotway my laptop's about 4 years old, so yes, I'd say it's modern. And what do you mean "built in"? I don't get ethernet for when I need it. I have only 4 USB ports, one of which goes to charging so I'm left with 3 ports to use for actual peripherals like gamepads, mice, thumb drives, or my phone. If the only peripherals you ever use are headphones and a mouse then good for you, but there are people who need actual fucking ports because some stuff can't be done with bluetooth, and other stuff just doesn't work as well with bluetooth
@reiddragon @markotway I don't use wired ethernet any more. I have magsafe for charging, and four Tbolt/USB-C ports on the desktop (to two on the laptop). I don't use gamepads or wired mice or thumbdrives and I don't plug my phone in to my laptop by a wire.
@cstross @markotway so you're just the 1% who apples caters to and act like you're the 99%. Also clearly never worked in an industrial setting where Ethernet and RS232 and RS485 are still king and if a laptop doesn't have Ethernet at the very least it's useless for us. And also never had to troubleshoot a router with misconfigured wifi that you can only reliably connect to over a wire.
@reiddragon @markotway Wrong: I just don’t mistake edge cases like those for a majority of use cases. (Hint: you’re coming across as a patronizing wanker. Please stop.)
@reiddragon @cstross.... And then they realised that you don't need all those daft ports when everything works with BT. 😁👍