I think the annoyance comes from not having that many ports to begin with. If I had a whole bunch of ports, it wouldn't matter as much if I had to snap on a usb-c adapter to all the cables.
What is annoying is having to unplug something i need so I can plug in a flash drive
They have many options depending on your needs. If you want it to charge your laptop through the dock / hub, ensure that it has power pass through functionality.
yeah i have a few of them and they all get extremely hot, plus they look ugly as hell. usually a super short cord so right where my mouse would be is a blazing hot ugly box with a bunch of cables and junk sticking out. and if you accidentally jiggle it or move the laptop too much the whole thing blanks out for a second interrupting work flow.
Some of both. I remember a time where it felt like every time I got a new computer it had some different ports because they kept evolving. Modem/Ethernet, firewire 400/800, keyboard/mouse/USB, VGA/DVI/Displsyport(and mini versions of some). Sure, my old computer might have had a lot of different ports, but I might never have used some of them. For something like a laptop, I think 2x USB-C on each side is good for most, plus add hubbing to larger peripherals like HDD enclosures and displays and docks wouldn’t have to be so popular.
I feel like we’re just in the middle of a good transition period. Few years from now almost everything that can will be USB-C, we’re really just waiting out the replacement of all the existing devices and their incompatible ports.
You can get laptop "hubs" which usually have a few USB ports, a video connector or two (often HDMI and/or DisplayPort), ethernet, and some will function as a power cable, too (one of mine does and one doesn't).
I remember dongle life, they popped up in the very late 90's and survived until like 2008ish. They sucked then, and they really suck now. And yes, I still think having an all in one USB "dongle" is worse than having built in functionality.
then again, I have a framework, so it's kinda moot lol.
I guess you could use the same argument to say you're buying less when you buy your laptop. It's just arbitrary data I/O through USB with the software level interpreting it. They don't have to ship a DAC or wifi radio (if they actually omitted that) or... whatever you call the component that's part of a GPU that converts to HDMI - instead they offload that to the dongle or peripheral. In effect your device is just slowly being whittled down to a processor to USB bridge.
The headphone and USB ones are the ones I hate the most. My "flagship" phone doesn't work with any of my ~15 pairs of headphones (mostly earbuds but a few actually nice ones) without an adapter. Booting up a laptop into a nix OS that doesn't have wpa_supplicant etc. installed, no ethernet dongle or ethernet port, that's about to be annoying.
This is more about laptops/phones than desktops btw. Normal sized desktops usually still ship with every port, plus one or two USB-C's these days.
I think the point was universal dongle with universal BLE / radio protocol. It could still have different encryption schemes and keys for each device / manufacturer by upgrading / installing drivers (so in software), but at least the radio packet protocol would be the same which would keep the hardware universal. Kind of like how smart home hubs (WiFi +/ Zigbee +/ Bluetooth +/ 433MHz / etc) work.
But we all know how creating a new "universal" protocol goes from experience (ie USB "standards").
26 Comments
otter@lemmy.ca · 36 pts · 2y
I think the annoyance comes from not having that many ports to begin with. If I had a whole bunch of ports, it wouldn't matter as much if I had to snap on a usb-c adapter to all the cables.
What is annoying is having to unplug something i need so I can plug in a flash drive
deleted@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 2y
Why not using small usbc splitter? Like 7 in 1
Edit:
The splitter or hub gives you 3 usbs, usbc, hdmi, Ethernet, sd card reader and charge your device.
Similar to laptop docks for 1/10th of the price.
check it out
Carighan@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 2y
Using a dongle to fix your dongle problems. 🤔 (you're not wrong, just thought it was funny)
deleted@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2y
Instead of having many dongles just buy a splitter and that’s it.
It’ll have 3 usbs, usbc, hdmi, Ethernet, sd card reader and power pass through.
Similar to laptop docks for 1/10th of the price.
Check it out link
DontTreadOnBigfoot@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2y
Why use many dongle when one dongle do trick
tetris11@lemmy.ml · 6 pts · 2y
Because they heat very easily, suffer throttleneck problems (Ethernet+HDMI+copytoUSB = sudden drop in Ethernet)
deleted@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2y
By splitter I mean small docking station. I use it daily and never had issues. I plug a mouse, hdmi, and Ethernet cable as well as power pass through.
tetris11@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 2y
Can you link to it?
deleted@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2y
Here you go: https://www.ugreen.com/collections/usb-hub/products/ugreen-9-in-1-usb-c-hub-with-4k-hdmi
They have many options depending on your needs. If you want it to charge your laptop through the dock / hub, ensure that it has power pass through functionality.
jdeath@lemm.ee · 2 pts · 2y
yeah i have a few of them and they all get extremely hot, plus they look ugly as hell. usually a super short cord so right where my mouse would be is a blazing hot ugly box with a bunch of cables and junk sticking out. and if you accidentally jiggle it or move the laptop too much the whole thing blanks out for a second interrupting work flow.
gregorum@lemm.ee · 1 pts · 2y
Some do, others don’t. It helps to check out reviews and ask around before buying.
BastingChemina@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 2y
You can also have both, all the different ports PLUS one or two USB-C where you can connect a dongle.
intensely_human@lemm.ee · 2 pts · 2y
And the old macbooks had so many ports!
Kelsenellenelvial@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 2y
Some of both. I remember a time where it felt like every time I got a new computer it had some different ports because they kept evolving. Modem/Ethernet, firewire 400/800, keyboard/mouse/USB, VGA/DVI/Displsyport(and mini versions of some). Sure, my old computer might have had a lot of different ports, but I might never have used some of them. For something like a laptop, I think 2x USB-C on each side is good for most, plus add hubbing to larger peripherals like HDD enclosures and displays and docks wouldn’t have to be so popular.
I feel like we’re just in the middle of a good transition period. Few years from now almost everything that can will be USB-C, we’re really just waiting out the replacement of all the existing devices and their incompatible ports.
Terevos@lemm.ee · 10 pts · 2y
Just get 1 dongle that you have everything plugged into. Then you only need to plug your laptop into 1 thing. Bam. Super convenient.
TeckFire@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 2y
What’s more convenient is everything using the same connector, but who knows when/if that will ever come about…
CoderKat@lemm.ee · 6 pts · 2y
You can get laptop "hubs" which usually have a few USB ports, a video connector or two (often HDMI and/or DisplayPort), ethernet, and some will function as a power cable, too (one of mine does and one doesn't).
spaxxor@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2y
I remember dongle life, they popped up in the very late 90's and survived until like 2008ish. They sucked then, and they really suck now. And yes, I still think having an all in one USB "dongle" is worse than having built in functionality.
then again, I have a framework, so it's kinda moot lol.
K4sum1@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 2y
They put the dongle in your laptop
EddoWagt@feddit.nl · 3 pts · 2y
I don't understand why there's no splitter modules for the framework. I'm sure it's possible to put 2 USB C ports into 1 module
Squizzy@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2y
I'm confused, why do you need audio and video USBs? I'm not even sure what's meant by that like your computer has no audio without the Dingle?
SauceBossSmokin@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2y
If you're referring to connecting a computer to the things you mentioned, just get a laptop docking station and you'll be just fine.
krey@sh.itjust.works · -8 pts · 2y
dx1@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2y
I guess you could use the same argument to say you're buying less when you buy your laptop. It's just arbitrary data I/O through USB with the software level interpreting it. They don't have to ship a DAC or wifi radio (if they actually omitted that) or... whatever you call the component that's part of a GPU that converts to HDMI - instead they offload that to the dongle or peripheral. In effect your device is just slowly being whittled down to a processor to USB bridge.
The headphone and USB ones are the ones I hate the most. My "flagship" phone doesn't work with any of my ~15 pairs of headphones (mostly earbuds but a few actually nice ones) without an adapter. Booting up a laptop into a nix OS that doesn't have wpa_supplicant etc. installed, no ethernet dongle or ethernet port, that's about to be annoying.
This is more about laptops/phones than desktops btw. Normal sized desktops usually still ship with every port, plus one or two USB-C's these days.
Kangie@lemmy.srcfiles.zip · 1 pts · 2y
If you french fry when you pizza you're gonna have a bad time.
Seriously though, if you want to use wifi without some sort of supplicant you've fucked up.
dx1@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2y
You can put it on, but at that point you're with reinstalling the system or moving packages over on a thumb drive. Huge pain.
314xel@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 2y
I think the point was universal dongle with universal BLE / radio protocol. It could still have different encryption schemes and keys for each device / manufacturer by upgrading / installing drivers (so in software), but at least the radio packet protocol would be the same which would keep the hardware universal. Kind of like how smart home hubs (WiFi +/ Zigbee +/ Bluetooth +/ 433MHz / etc) work.
But we all know how creating a new "universal" protocol goes from experience (ie USB "standards").