[texaswhizzle]

How is this any different than buying the wrong cable in the past? You used to have to choose USB2, USB3, USB3.x, micro USB, mini USB, DisplayPort, Mini DisplayPort, HDMI, mini HDMI, VGA, DVI, thunderbolt, and more.

I think people are either too young to remember this disaster, or have just outright forgotten.

[aduitsis]

Allow me to say it's slightly different, because you could basically tell the difference by just looking at the connector carefully. The knowledge that if it connects, it'll 99.9% work is too ingrained in all of us. Usb-c breaks that norm.

Now you have to carefully see what the packaging says, which can range from inadvertently unclear to downright misleading. And to add to that, you don't know what to look for in the first place if you don't have prior experience with thunderbolt/usb-c. Example, I didn't know that a cable must explicitly mention DP in order to connect to an external monitor. Because it was the first time I had an external monitor that can use usb-c.

Not really complaining, usb-c is very very nice. Just pointing the minor annoyance of learning its warts.

[andrewmunsell]

The issue is more the ubiquity-- when everything from my phone, to Nintendo Switch, to headphones, to flashlight, to laptop use the same cord for power and data, it's a bigger problem than the low spec HDMI cable you plug in once.