"The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire" by Gibbons.

Back in the 90s, most laptops came with a docking station or had options to buy it separately that added any port a desktop had at the time. None of this is new.

I never had issue with ports on non-Apple laptops. I currently have 2 USB-C (one with DP), 3 USB-A, HDMI, Jack and Ethernet. Pretty good taking into account that there's plenty of good USB-C dock available so you only need the extra ports when on the move.

who needed only 1 USB-A and two lightning cable ports?

That MacBook has an additional USB-A port and an HDMI port on the other side

When was Mini-DVI relevant?

In the mid 2000s. DVI offered the advantage of digital signal and support for higher resolutions at a time when most other laptops still had a VGA port. Part of Apple’s option of “premium” technologies. HDMI didn’t really start to take hold until the late 2000s, and Apple eventually switched.

Apple have generally been willing to adopt the more novel / premium connections in their products. Consider the 2016 MacBook Pro - Apple went all-in on Thunderbolt / USB Type C at a time where that was a rather uncommon connection, but in the years that followed we got an awesome array of aftermarket hubs and adapters that also benefited ultrabook users as the rest of tech started to follow suit.

Don’t get me started on the iPhone USB-C port being limited to 500Mbps though.

My Lenovo Legion from 2021 has 4 USB-A, 1 USB-C, 1 SD-Card reader, 1 minijack, 1 hdmi and 1 ethernet. They've absolutely nailed what is needed, maybe except the SD-Card, but I can kinda see a use for that for some people.

I've refused a laptop and just use a desktop PC at work.

IT has been to our office recently and collected all the laptops. Everyone has complained that the laptops are working fine and are set up the way they like (Windows 11 capable too). IT says they have a lease contract with HP and the department doesn't own the laptops, they need to be returned every 5 years for replacement.

I look forward to "old" office IT equipment showing up on eBay. 11th Gen Intel laptops are starting to show up on eBay for £200.

without RJ45

Just a reminder, requiring "Ethernet" may not make you end up with RJ45.

So of course I need...

The dongle!

Same! Work gave me a Dell laptop, on one side there is a USB-C/TB, on the other side there is 2 USB-C/TB and HDMI. I needed to buy a small usb-c dock with PD, usb-a, second HDMI, RJ45, etc to work with it at home. At least it is easier to unplug and carry.

My work laptop has two USB-A and two USB-C ports, and that's it. And once of those C's gets used to charge it. Plus, it's so thin that the battery lasts an hour and a half just idling on desktop. I'm just glad I mostly work on hardware stuff so I hardly ever have to actually use it.

Macbooks still have a headphone jack.

Did it? All of the laptops I've gotten in the past 5 years still have those ports. But I don't buy Apple stuff.

It's so dumb. I'm obviously going to keep using non-proprietary headphones. Even if I have to buy a whole docking station with an aux jack.

The air is still very thin.

They're emotionally parallel.

But now my OCD is triggered, thanks.

I still use my T420 because of the nice keyboard. Something like that plus usb-c would be amazing.

At first I was angry when I read this (because I'm sick of loss), but then I thought it's oddly fitting.

You can push Gigabit Ethernet through USB-C too, so a single USB-C connection will likely be our future port allowance 😇

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