this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2025
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I don't know this area well. But I have a strong preference for all port shapes to be the same where possible. Can USB-C shaped heads do the same thing as DisplayPort? If not now, is it possible to make it in the future.
Unfortunately this has an even more serious problem:
How do you know which cable supports which modes of delivery?
Turns out you have a usb c cable that doesn’t actually support power delivery or anything
Now what do you do?
This is why many of the expensive Dock options from HP / Dell / Lenovo, etc come with a non-detachable USB-C cable. You can't have the "wrong" cable because the one you need isn't removable.
I really dislike that. But I understand the reaction to the failure of the usb org. Usb C cables must be labelled on the cable (repeating) with exactly what they support in standard terms.
Maybe another job for the EU.
Why though? It’s immediately clear where a VGA or hdmi cable works, but a USB-C could support or not support anything.
That is where port markings come into play...
You also need cable markings, as both the cable and the port decide what specs to implement, and if they’re standard compliant or not.
Plus there are active/inactive cables for thunderbolt (and I think usb4) which massively affect performance.
USB c is better than the shitty port designs of USB before it, but it’s a huge mess.
So could an hdmi cable, there a lots of different hdmi specs as there are usb c specs. The problem is the lack of standardized labeling not the cables shapes. USB-C for everything would personally be my preference
Display Port over USB C is a thing now. It's how laptop docks work these days. In one cable you have power, video, and USB.
USB-C alt mode is DisplayPort with a USB-C connector.
Thunderbolt is exactly that.
Thunderbolt 2 and Mini Displayport used to have the same connector. Since Thunderbolt 3, it now uses the USB C connector.
Thunderbolt 5 supports Displayport 2.1. I wish more devices used Thunderbolt compatible USB C ports. Or GPUs came with a Thunderbolt port on them. They're pretty awesome, it's like better USB C.
It seems like only laptops really use them to allow docking through a single cable
You don't need Thunderbolt for Displayport alt mode. It's a separate spec that can also be implemented independently. I have a dock that's not Thunderbolt but supports DP alt mode.
But Thunderbolt has some additional stuff too