4 ms·

The designers are trying to "make a point", but what that point is, exactly, is unclear.

ctdonath 12y ago
Apple has a long history of dramatic changes in ports, which is usually met with derision yet, not long after, becomes the industry norm. I've seen such "why is unclear" rhetoric when Apple dropped floppy drives, RS-232 ports, Centronix printer ports, prior keyboard/mouse ports, VGA, etc and went exclusively (or nearly) to CDs, USB, FireWire, assorted video (jumping to the best as available), and other connectors. USB has done well, but is lacking: high power (both directions), extremely high data rates, flippable, and generally able to hub a bunch of wires into a single connector (power included). Yeah we can live without the USB-C's aggregation of all that, but for the target market (leading-edge ultraportable) it's a good improvement.
- yellowapple 12y ago
  Much of that early difference in port availability relative to IBM-compatibles is because Apple's computers weren't IBM-compatibles; in that context, things like PS/2 ports for one's keyboard or mouse wouldn't make sense, whereas USB would. In other words, Apple never really "dropped" those things (other than floppy disks and maybe VGA); rather, it simply never adopted them because their computers weren't in the same class as those which had adopted them.
  - ctdonath 12y ago
    They did, however, drop other ports which were in use. The Mac did have a wired keyboard, using some quasi-proprietary connection - and it was dropped, preventing further use of old keyboards on new devices. Centronix and RS-232 (both 25- and 9-pin) connectors were ubiquitous, what with a great many devices available which could very well have been connected (printers, modems) and had been included on Apple products. Macs weren't _that_ different as to make strange the notion of attaching common peripherals to them.
    - yellowapple 12y ago
      They had 9-pin, but at least in the relatively-early days (i.e. back when the "Macintosh" brand was still pretty new), they didn't really have 25-pin in the sense of IBM-compatible PCs; the "printer" port was a 9-pin connector on the original Macintosh, for example, and the 25-pin ports eventually introduced were SCSI ports (certainly not Centronics ports). But yeah, peripheral compatibility was a big factor in adoption of Apple's computers. This is a compelling reason for them to have switched from their proprietary keyboard/mouse interface, for example, to USB.

Apple has a long history of dramatic changes in ports, which is usually met with derision yet, not long after, becomes the industry norm. I've seen such "why is unclear" rhetoric when Apple dropped floppy drives, RS-232 ports, Centronix printer ports, prior keyboard/mouse ports, VGA, etc and went exclusively (or nearly) to CDs, USB, FireWire, assorted video (jumping to the best as available), and other connectors. USB has done well, but is lacking: high power (both directions), extremely high data rates, flippable, and generally able to hub a bunch of wires into a single connector (power included). Yeah we can live without the USB-C's aggregation of all that, but for the target market (leading-edge ultraportable) it's a good improvement.

yellowapple 12y ago
Much of that early difference in port availability relative to IBM-compatibles is because Apple's computers weren't IBM-compatibles; in that context, things like PS/2 ports for one's keyboard or mouse wouldn't make sense, whereas USB would. In other words, Apple never really "dropped" those things (other than floppy disks and maybe VGA); rather, it simply never adopted them because their computers weren't in the same class as those which had adopted them.
- ctdonath 12y ago
  They did, however, drop other ports which were in use. The Mac did have a wired keyboard, using some quasi-proprietary connection - and it was dropped, preventing further use of old keyboards on new devices. Centronix and RS-232 (both 25- and 9-pin) connectors were ubiquitous, what with a great many devices available which could very well have been connected (printers, modems) and had been included on Apple products. Macs weren't _that_ different as to make strange the notion of attaching common peripherals to them.
  - yellowapple 12y ago
    They had 9-pin, but at least in the relatively-early days (i.e. back when the "Macintosh" brand was still pretty new), they didn't really have 25-pin in the sense of IBM-compatible PCs; the "printer" port was a 9-pin connector on the original Macintosh, for example, and the 25-pin ports eventually introduced were SCSI ports (certainly not Centronics ports). But yeah, peripheral compatibility was a big factor in adoption of Apple's computers. This is a compelling reason for them to have switched from their proprietary keyboard/mouse interface, for example, to USB.