I have a Macbook Pro with one magsafe power, three USB-C ports, one headphone jack, and one HDMI. I walk up to my desk where I plug exactly one USB-C cable in. This connects to a dock that gives me all my disks, thunderbolt, ethernet, speaker, two external monitors, power, and a bunch of USB ports if I need them.
When I need to walk away, I hit one item on my menubar to dismount the disks, then unplug the one cable and walk away.
When away from desk, I don’t need modem, ethernet, firewire, or anything else. I take a single power brick that has 7 USB ports that doubles as an overnight charger. If I have to give an in-person presentation, I plug into the HDMI. The only extra thing I’ve had to carry was a tiny USB-A to USB-C adapter that cost $4.
On that same MB, I run Parallels with latest Windows and Linux versions, and have built all kinds of apps on all those platforms without any trouble. I do this for a living. It’s not a casual hobby and it’s about as ideal a system as I can wish for.
I really don’t understand this fetishization of ports. I used to have laptops with all that bullshit extra stuff I never used when away. It added extra weight, and took forever to sort out all the cables and plugs each time I sat down or walked away.
I do agree that docks are great, however being compatible with docks and having a good selection of ports are not mutually exclusive. As someone who uses docks and the ports on their laptop depending on the scenario, I really wish the industry would stop moving towards extinguishing one of the two workflows
I have an old TB device and a modern USB-C PC, and I bought a dock and adapters that I thought should have allowed me to interface them, but it failed.
I prefer a universal format - at this point I just want a dozen USB-C controllers. But backward compatibility has been, in my experience, an absolute nightmare.
I have a Macbook Pro with one magsafe power, three USB-C ports, one headphone jack, and one HDMI. I walk up to my desk where I plug exactly one USB-C cable in. This connects to a dock that gives me all my disks, thunderbolt, ethernet, speaker, two external monitors, power, and a bunch of USB ports if I need them.
When I need to walk away, I hit one item on my menubar to dismount the disks, then unplug the one cable and walk away.
When away from desk, I don’t need modem, ethernet, firewire, or anything else. I take a single power brick that has 7 USB ports that doubles as an overnight charger. If I have to give an in-person presentation, I plug into the HDMI. The only extra thing I’ve had to carry was a tiny USB-A to USB-C adapter that cost $4.
On that same MB, I run Parallels with latest Windows and Linux versions, and have built all kinds of apps on all those platforms without any trouble. I do this for a living. It’s not a casual hobby and it’s about as ideal a system as I can wish for.
I really don’t understand this fetishization of ports. I used to have laptops with all that bullshit extra stuff I never used when away. It added extra weight, and took forever to sort out all the cables and plugs each time I sat down or walked away.
Don’t miss it one bit.
I do agree that docks are great, however being compatible with docks and having a good selection of ports are not mutually exclusive. As someone who uses docks and the ports on their laptop depending on the scenario, I really wish the industry would stop moving towards extinguishing one of the two workflows
Yeah, thunderbolt dock is really really great. I use one for my professional work machine as well
I have an old TB device and a modern USB-C PC, and I bought a dock and adapters that I thought should have allowed me to interface them, but it failed.
I prefer a universal format - at this point I just want a dozen USB-C controllers. But backward compatibility has been, in my experience, an absolute nightmare.