my ups and downs with usb

When I first started using PCs as a kid, there were only two portable storage formats. Tape (as in microcassette) and floppies (as in floppy diskettes). That was it. Tape was way too slow, so I used floppies, and I always hated them.

Floppies always sucked because they could barely hold anything. Yeah, they were fine for storing documents, but images? Unless they were resized to be really small, forget about it.

When the compact disc got affordable, those were... okay. Yeah, nice to have up to 700MB storage, but whenever you burned a disc, it was just like the floppy where your computer was absolutely dedicated to that file writing task until it was done. With DVD, same thing.

USB 1.1 sticks sucked. Too slow, and what was available didn't hold as much as DVDs did. USB 2.0 sticks, okay, better, but still a bit slow. USB 3.0, yeah, now we're talking. This is usable. Speedy, and acts just like a drive for the most part. And at the time I write this, 512GB sticks are cheap and plentiful.

All good, right? Well, not really because USB obviously isn't just for storage but also to connect peripherals. Keyboards, mice, wireless crap sometimes, printers sometimes, and so on.

My two favorite USB connector types are A (the larger rectangle) and mini. I do not like USB-C even though I know it's superior. I'll get back to that in a moment.

Last year in '24, I had to buy a USB hub. There are a lot of them out there, but this I know: Only use unpowered 4-port, and only for device connections and data transfer. The 7-port ones suck because they will fail way sooner than a 4-port will, and having it powered to charge things is just a bad idea because that makes the hub fail even faster.

If I need to charge anything via USB (such as my phone), I plug it into a block that goes right to the wall. This works fine. No problems.

My USB-A and mini USB devices (which is most of my Garmin navigators) never have problems connecting to a computer. Same for my micro USB devices (those are few in number but they work properly also). I use Linux primarily, but also have a Windows laptop. If I connect USB-A or mini USB to either OS, no problems. They work. But if it's a USB-C thing... sometimes stupid stuff happens.

For example, Once a USB-C connection is established, it's nice and speedy as it should be. However, the establishing of the connection is slower compared to USB-A, mini or micro. I can plug in a USB-A and the device is almost instantly recognized by the computer. But USB-C? No. Takes a little longer, and I have no idea why. Again, once the connection is there, yeah, good. But the fact there's additional waiting with the newer "better" connector? Dumb. And this is not a Linux thing because I see the same crap happen on Windows on an entirely different computer. It's not the computer, not the device, not the hub, not the cable, not any of that. It's something to do with USB-C itself causing the additional wait time. Again, dumb.

I hate the fact you must use specific USB-C cables just so that technology actually works correctly. If you need to charge anything, it HAS to be a charging cord type. If it's not, problems will happen. This was never a requirement with USB-A, mini or micro. You could use the crappiest, junkiest cable and it would work for charging, connectivity or data. Older USB tech never complained about cable type, but USB-C absolutely does. USB-C is so stupid that there are specific Android Auto cables just so it works like it's supposed to. Once again, dumb.

The whole point of C was to have one connector to eliminate cables... but it didn't happen. Most people need 2 to 3 cables (data, charging, car) just for one modern smartphone.

Said once again, dumb.

Published 2025 Jan 2