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Those guys really took the "Universal" in "Universal Serial Bus" to heart. Let's multiplex every conceivable connection device known to man into one giant stand

Those guys really took the "Universal" in "Universal Serial Bus" to heart. Let's multiplex every conceivable connection device known to man into one giant standard, and throw in the ability to power the devices, too. That should really make things simple. I seem to recall that there was some proverb about systems becoming so baroque that they eventually become rubble. It seems that USB is sewing the seeds of its own destruction. No doubt that within 20 years they'll decide the whole thing is so complex that they need to replace it with something simpler. And I'm still puzzled as to why plugging a keyboard into a keyboard port was considered such an inconvenience in the first place. I think that USB is an object lesson in why you can't reduce inherent complexity, only shuffle it around.

jdlshore 4y ago
> why plugging a keyboard into a keyboard port was considered such an inconvenience. USB was a BIG deal, and a big improvement. It wasn’t the keyboards, it was the printers, scanners, external hard drives, and Zip drives. Macs had something called “plug and play.” You plugged in a peripheral and it Just Worked. PCs didn’t have that. USB was intended to be the solution, and the most part, it succeeded. BUT… the PS/2 connector was also a problem. In addition to there only being one keyboard connector on a typical computer—that happened to look just like the mouse connector, and wouldn’t work if you used the wrong one—it had an electrical flaw that could actually damage your motherboard if you plugged/unplugged it while the computer was on. So, yeah, maybe don’t hate so easily.
- johnwalkr 4y ago
  The original iMac was the first computer to have only USB ports, and no floppy drive. This was controversial at the time but it probably sped up adoption quite a bit. And the connectors themselves have been great. Aside from PS/2 connectors, most other things use some variation of a DB9 connector. Mechanically, you could plug all kinds of things together that were not electrically compatible.

jdlshore 4y ago

> why plugging a keyboard into a keyboard port was considered such an inconvenience. USB was a BIG deal, and a big improvement. It wasn’t the keyboards, it was the printers, scanners, external hard drives, and Zip drives. Macs had something called “plug and play.” You plugged in a peripheral and it Just Worked. PCs didn’t have that. USB was intended to be the solution, and the most part, it succeeded. BUT… the PS/2 connector was also a problem. In addition to there only being one keyboard connector on a typical computer—that happened to look just like the mouse connector, and wouldn’t work if you used the wrong one—it had an electrical flaw that could actually damage your motherboard if you plugged/unplugged it while the computer was on. So, yeah, maybe don’t hate so easily.

johnwalkr 4y ago
The original iMac was the first computer to have only USB ports, and no floppy drive. This was controversial at the time but it probably sped up adoption quite a bit. And the connectors themselves have been great. Aside from PS/2 connectors, most other things use some variation of a DB9 connector. Mechanically, you could plug all kinds of things together that were not electrically compatible.