this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2026
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I know Apple is terrible with usability, but I also think USB-C is now the one that works everywhere. All my last USB stick purchases had USB-A and C, just so that I don't have to run away in tears. I can even use them with smartphones and those never had USB-A.
It's the new standard, but there should always be at least one USB-A. It's still incredibly common.
USB-C is over 11 years old.
And? Is there something newer that's a standard? If not, it's the new one.
Also, it's only recently become the de facto standard. Yes, it's older than that, but it didn't become the standard until maybe five years ago. So much was still being made for USB-A, and some things still are. Anything older than ~5 years ago has good odds of being A.
Anything older than 5 years ago has the odds of being A, B, Mini A, Mini B, Micro A, Micro B, etc.
C is the standard. If you need legacy support, there’s hubs and adapters. No need to perpetuate legacy ports. I’d love a serial and a parallel connector - there’s plenty of modern industrial gear still using them. But we do that with C -> Serial adapters.
A device has a limited number of ports. Would one rather two USB-C, or one A and one C?
That A port will have diminishing value if one intends to use the device for 5 to 10 years and increases the probability someone discards the device early given the limited number of modern, high value ports.
I don't have a single peripheral that uses USB-C. I have a lot of USB-A and some micro-USB.
My phone is USB-C and that's about it. Given that my 2 year old PC case has 8 USB-A connectors and 1 USB-C connector, I'd also wager keyboards and mice won't stop being USB-A anytime soon. There's just no reason for them to be anything else.
Depends on whether or not the cable is fixed or removable, my mouse has a fixed cable so it uses A (lowest common denominator), meanwhile my (5 year old) keyboard has a removable cable so has a C port only.
Furthermore I shouldn't have to get rid of an old A device that still works just because they remove the ports. I don't care how old it is let me use my external CD drive with the USB-A to Mini-USB (yes mini lmao.) Wish I still had an attached optical disk drive tbh.
For progress to happen you have to move on eventually. Hubs are a decent compromise.
People do not replace accessories and specialized external hardware nearly as often as companies think they do.
How dare you not run out and buy a brand new, well, EVERYTHING every single year! Do you want the communists to win?
Considering I called myself a Communist in the 90s...
Granted I have become more conservative with age and lean more Socialist/Democratic Socialist these days.
my home computer has no USB-C and I can't afford to upgrade because gestures broadly.
You can buy a dongle or hub very cheaply.
First day of the COVID confinement I plugged in a cheap usb c/a dongle into my work laptop to use my mouse and instantly fried the mobo.
Just saying eh 😁
I have a USB-C hub with USB-A ports that plugs into my work PC. I had a hard time trying to find the opposite, though I haven't looked in ages; it honestly has come up exactly once in the last few years when I needed to borrow my wife's sd card reader (or dig my old laptop out of the closet and play the updates game).
Both USB-C and USB-A have their pros and cons.
USB-C has a lot more bandwidth and power draw.
USB-A is sturdier and cheaper.
For things like a mouse or keyboard, having more bandwidth or power draw are useless, but being cheaper and sturdier are not.
One can not replace the other entirely. Apple just wants to milk everyone by forcing them to buy all their peripherals again.
I now want a smartphone with 3 USB-A ports.
Horizontal.
I think the only holdouts are Raspberry Pi. For some reason they still don't have a USB-C option for the nano
And I have about 20 USB-A flash drives, up to 128GB, that I should just toss in the trash because...why exactly? Because they are "old"?
"all my recent flash drives have had both ports so I can use them with usb a or usb c!"
"WHAT SO I SHOULD JUST TOSS ALL MY OLD HARDWARE?"
no one said that. youre just saying shit. you can still use your usb-a flash drives.
"SO YOU HATE WAFFLES?"
"That's a whole new sentence. Wtf is you talkin about?"
Bro, just get an A-C Adapter. They are like 20cents und always useful, especially if you have old hardware
So now we need to buy dongles for something that should be standard on a computer?
Next thing we'll need a dongle for the power button, because Apple decided that shouting "POWER ON APPLE" is the better way to turn on a laptop.
Stop whining so much, no one's telling you to use a dongle, there's nothing wrong with USB-C slowly replacing USB-A and becoming a new standard.
We'd never be rid of VGA if we were listening to the ever nagging old dorks that can't get themselves an adapter.
Thank you, I was just about to write a lengthy paragraph about serial ports being the only standard ever needed 😅
Psh you youngsters with your fancy serial ports! Tin cans with string were good enough for my grandparents and they're good enough for me!
No - but you can get a A to C adapter if you expect that you'll bring it to someone who might only have USB C.
And from my perspective: if I expect other to being me data id expect from myself to bring such an adapter. That way I'd both parties try to remember chances are one of them have. :)
It's not normal to expect someone to not have USB-A on a computer though.
Is it not normal to expect someone to not have serial on their computer?
Standards change.
USB-A is still widely used, even more than USB-C, serial is not.
Apple is forcing standards when there is no need, ... again
For mobile devices I don't share that experience. I do not expect others to have USB A anymore. MacBooks alone are so widespread that they were enough to get sna adapter.
It's the same for displays: if I have to give a presentation I'm making sure I can do next to everything down to and including VGA.
Yes it's the venues job to take care of that but I've been in one place that literally went like "can't you just connect?" to their apple bullshit.
That Apple is rotten to the core in many topics is nothing I feel needs discussing - this includes specifically their hostile stand and compatibility.
I honestly don't even see an issue with the adapters though: it's 5gram, 2(ish) Euro and sometimes I can even be the compability savior and people are forced to listen to me bitching about Apple!
And serial ports were widely used when usb was introduced.
I don't like it either, but in 2026 on laptops at least it is normal.
No? Just get an adapter?
USB-A to USB-C adapter. They’re inexpensive, and you don’t have to get one for each of the 30 flash drives you have.
If it's just for documents I may still have single digit GB memory sticks somewhere that are more than enough space.
Who the hell still uses flash drives in 2026? Especially a slow-ass USB-A one. I can’t think of a single use-case for them.
I'll just laugh at you with my 256GB "slow" USB 3 flash drive if you ever need any boot utility like memtest or gparted then.
Who use those? Well simply people who actualy maintain computers.
If I need any of those I simply set the machine to network-boot. I have all of those and more available as network boot images on my LAN.
Alternatively I can simply log in to the IPMI interface on any of my machines and attach the disk image as a virtual drive and boot it from that. No need to even physically go to the machine as all my x86 machines use server-grade hardware with remote management capabilities.
Those are not things all motherboard support, and the whole discussion stemed from laptop ports, do any consumer laptop (or any laptop at all) have IPMI?
As for PXE boot, doesn't this one relies on the existence of a rj45 port on the target machine? Did you believe a laptop that replaced every port with usb-c somehow still had one of those?
Me. Linux distros (either install media or straight live boot disks like Tails), moving files larger than like fucking 2gb without relying on spyware or self hosting a cloud service, redundant backups of your most important files, rescue disks, and MORE! Only $16.99 for a limited time while supplies last see comment for details.
What’s the advantage of using a slow USB drive instead of just network-booting the install media or mounting it through IPMI?
Just send the data between machines using SCP, much easier and faster.
Backups you do either to a NAS or to a Thunderbolt-connected SSD, not a USB-A drive. Again, much too slow to use a USB drive.
Why spend 30 minutes setting up the networking when I could just plug in the USB and go do something else for 5 minutes?
I don't have internet spawning from my ass, so it works better in non-connected environments.
More importantly I have no fucking clue what any of that means, but I can plug rectangle into rectangle hole. And absolutely 0 "how to install linux" tuts come with your set-up, so I'm gonna guess most new people don't know how to either. "Do network magic because some dickhead wants to remove all ports" isn't going to be a selling point for them.
Can I SCP my dad the pictures of my vacation from 3 states away? Maybe. Would he prefer I mail him a "zip drive?" Yes. Not everyone on earth is a 1337 H4x0r like yourself there zero cool.
You really need your monthly 3rd redundant backup of your .kdbx file to be lightning fast? I can wait the .03 seconds it takes to transfer I'm not in as much of a hurry as you.
Yeah, if you’re in the middle of a desert, Antarctica or in some jungle then I can imagine. But the majority of people who are not on a safari somewhere and live in a normal, populated area will have internet practically everywhere. You’d have to go out of your way to find a place without internet.
Then maybe just buy a Mac and get 99% of the benefits of a *nix system without needing the appropriate knowledge.
He would prefer you sending him a simple WhatsApp message with your pictures instead of having to mess with a thumb drive.
No. I need my hourly incremental backup of my entire drive to be fast.
Ohh you don't know poor people? I know more than one person without internet at home that just torrents at a friend's house, I'm one of them. Honestly I prefer it this way.
Yup, no poor people, got it. Linux is free using your existing hardware, Mac not so much. Moreover they're not much better than windows when it comes to privacy and control over your own hardware. Not really sure what benefits you're talking about because it sure as shit ain't those, unix based file system maybe, woohoo.
Meanwhile I've been using linux for about 7yr without needing to know that garbage because "stick go into hole" works just fine for everyone but you.
He also cares about privacy actually, so no whatsapp. Delta Chat, but then Image Compression.
You don't keep a spare spare spare of your most important files? Do you even offsite backup? Up your paranoia game my guy, skill issue.