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Is it really worse now than it was before? Having a plug on say a laptop that can be a charger, a HID, a drive, a monitor, or all of the above with a docking s

Is it really worse now than it was before? Having a plug on say a laptop that can be a charger, a HID, a drive, a monitor, or all of the above with a docking station is vastly superior to the old day IMHO. Unfortunately the cable to do that isn't cheap and is massively overkill for say a phone charger. Thus cable compatibility becomes a thing but looking at HDMI cable compatibility is always a thing. I think the problem is what used to be complaints about niche connectors are complaints about USB-C and it feels different and more impactful even if it isn't necessarily. After all I know back in the Mini-USB days you had manufacturers skipping the data pins to save some copper leading to frustration when you couldn't transfer files.

yftsui 3y ago
It is really worse. I have ton of USB-C cables doesn’t transfer data from flash lights, a lot of USB 2.0 speed cables with USB-C connector, then USB 3.0 cables rated at 5G/10Gbps without an easy way to know the difference, then Thunderbolt 3 / 4 cables one each. Besides Thunderbolt cables, there is not a standard nor universal way to identity them. I had to test each cable by plug in an SSD then speed test the SSD. Flash back 15 years, a cable with MicroUSB either transfer data, or not. The difference between high speed / super speed only lives in the device.
- doubled112 3y ago
  Don't forget to mention displays in this discussion. A USB-C docking station will plug into many of my laptops, but only two will display anything on the screen. Being able to pick and choose features like that is not user friendly. It will do everything except when they didn't feel like implementing it is not a good standard.
- p1mrx 3y ago
  > I had to test each cable by plug in an SSD then speed test the SSD. That's actually not a bad solution. The speed of a cable doesn't matter unless you have a device that needs to be fast.
- Guvante 3y ago
  Having to buy yet another adapter cable to make things work wasn't great. Nor was having to use a hub because FireWire and Thunderbolt at up space that could have been USB cables. At least you get minimal functionality (why are you hoarding data less cables?) Better than having to go buy one because you have a billion micro USB but no FireWire to hook up that drive.

yftsui 3y ago

It is really worse. I have ton of USB-C cables doesn’t transfer data from flash lights, a lot of USB 2.0 speed cables with USB-C connector, then USB 3.0 cables rated at 5G/10Gbps without an easy way to know the difference, then Thunderbolt 3 / 4 cables one each. Besides Thunderbolt cables, there is not a standard nor universal way to identity them. I had to test each cable by plug in an SSD then speed test the SSD. Flash back 15 years, a cable with MicroUSB either transfer data, or not. The difference between high speed / super speed only lives in the device.

doubled112 3y ago
Don't forget to mention displays in this discussion. A USB-C docking station will plug into many of my laptops, but only two will display anything on the screen. Being able to pick and choose features like that is not user friendly. It will do everything except when they didn't feel like implementing it is not a good standard.
p1mrx 3y ago
> I had to test each cable by plug in an SSD then speed test the SSD. That's actually not a bad solution. The speed of a cable doesn't matter unless you have a device that needs to be fast.
Guvante 3y ago
Having to buy yet another adapter cable to make things work wasn't great. Nor was having to use a hub because FireWire and Thunderbolt at up space that could have been USB cables. At least you get minimal functionality (why are you hoarding data less cables?) Better than having to go buy one because you have a billion micro USB but no FireWire to hook up that drive.