Quote:
Originally Posted by
tourtelot
All my laptops are from 2012. After that, Apple quit putting I/Os on their computers. :(
D.
My all time favourite I/O connection was the old 54mm Cardbus-pcmcia card.... circa 2001 ! A really solid slide-in laptop card with lots of surface contact support....no wobble... based on its desktop equivalent. The following Express card (20 odd mm wide) was a much sloppier fit, easier to dislodge with an accidental bump. USB is ok, as is FireWire, but both should have had finger-screw tightening like the vga monitor cable. All time worst was the mini 4 pin FireWire connector, which would disconnect if you looked at it sideways !
The cardbus was great because it was a pci direct connection to the CPU ...like a direct neural implant

It couldn't get pushed out of the way processing wise by streaming packet interrupts, like USB for example. Today, Thunderbolt seems to be the closest equivalent....but there's been a lot of dodgy, mechanically and electrically bankrupt connections in between...and even TB is a slide in mini connector with no locking ability. Ethernet seems solid enough....until it breaks, eh Doug ?
Today's laptops have become multipurpose non-pro kitchen gadgets....laden with processing power to seemingly no good end, less reliable than their equivalents of 15 years ago....a sad state of affairs.