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USB-A had all of these compatibility concerns too, when it first came out. I remember having a Gateway All-in-One with only two USB-A ports in '98. You had to w

by cbhl 9y ago

USB-A had all of these compatibility concerns too, when it first came out. I remember having a Gateway All-in-One with only two USB-A ports in '98. You had to worry about USB 1 versus USB 2, and some devices wouldn't get enough power through a hub, and so forth. I'm really looking forward to seeing where USB-C is in two or three years.

jseliger 9y ago
I was going to write something similar. This looks like most port transitions. Right now everything is a mess. In five years it probably won't be.
- wmf 9y ago
  He does address this at the end. Also, a cable that doesn't support Thunderbolt and 100W charging will probably always be cheaper than one that does, and thus we should expect suboptimal cables to keep being sold.
  - damnyou 9y ago
    It will also be lighter and thinner. Try replacing "suboptimal" with "Pareto optimal" in your everyday life. It made a positive difference for me.
nebulous1 9y ago
I think his point is that it was a missed opportunity to learn from those exact mistakes
- dom0 9y ago
  Things like passive hubs working poorly were not in the spec. This stuff is.
colejohnson66 9y ago
I’m too young to have experienced the transition, but were there cables that could fry your computer? https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/02/google-engineer-finds-usb-type-c-cable-thats-so-bad-it-fried-his-chromebook-pixel/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/02/google-engineer-find...
- cbhl 9y ago
  Oh, in those days, computers would fry themselves -- literally -- from overheating. CPU vendors raced to break the 1 GHz barrier, but thermal throttling wasn't as mature. If I pushed my computer too hard for too long (say, with a really tough ray trace) then it would just shut off uncleanly from being too hot. The joke was you could fry an egg on your CPU because it got so hot: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/03/01/how_to_fry_an_egg/ https://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/03/01/how_to_fry_an_egg/ http://www.phys.ncku.edu.tw/~htsu/humor/fry_egg.html http://www.phys.ncku.edu.tw/~htsu/humor/fry_egg.html
  - narrowtux 9y ago
    no
- Dylan16807 9y ago
  A batch of cables was wired completely backwards. That could happen any time, to any kind of cable. So I'll go ahead and say 'yes'.

by cbhl 9y ago

jseliger 9y ago

I was going to write something similar. This looks like most port transitions. Right now everything is a mess. In five years it probably won't be.

wmf 9y ago
He does address this at the end. Also, a cable that doesn't support Thunderbolt and 100W charging will probably always be cheaper than one that does, and thus we should expect suboptimal cables to keep being sold.
- damnyou 9y ago
  It will also be lighter and thinner. Try replacing "suboptimal" with "Pareto optimal" in your everyday life. It made a positive difference for me.

nebulous1 9y ago

I think his point is that it was a missed opportunity to learn from those exact mistakes

dom0 9y ago
Things like passive hubs working poorly were not in the spec. This stuff is.

colejohnson66 9y ago

I’m too young to have experienced the transition, but were there cables that could fry your computer? https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/02/google-engineer-finds-usb-type-c-cable-thats-so-bad-it-fried-his-chromebook-pixel/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/02/google-engineer-find...

cbhl 9y ago
Oh, in those days, computers would fry themselves -- literally -- from overheating. CPU vendors raced to break the 1 GHz barrier, but thermal throttling wasn't as mature. If I pushed my computer too hard for too long (say, with a really tough ray trace) then it would just shut off uncleanly from being too hot. The joke was you could fry an egg on your CPU because it got so hot: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/03/01/how_to_fry_an_egg/ https://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/03/01/how_to_fry_an_egg/ http://www.phys.ncku.edu.tw/~htsu/humor/fry_egg.html http://www.phys.ncku.edu.tw/~htsu/humor/fry_egg.html
- narrowtux 9y ago
  no
Dylan16807 9y ago
A batch of cables was wired completely backwards. That could happen any time, to any kind of cable. So I'll go ahead and say 'yes'.