someone is going to nerdsnipe me so i will add that technically its 15 registered ports per USB controller, so you can add a dongle with another USB controller and have more than 15. a mobo usually only has 1 USB controller for way more than 15 USB ports though, Apple added this arbitrary restriction for no reason since none of their devices have that many ports. so a typical PC motherboard just straight up destabilizes the system lmfao
When I worked for Apple, I do remember the iOS devs having racks of iOS devices all being flashed at the same time off a single Mac. But I don’t remember the count and this was years ago—like Snow Leopard to El Cap era.
I was just kind of data analytics, but the labs were near my area, so can’t really give much more info, but mildly interesting, I guess?
Well, from an Apple pov, there’s no reason to change that limit (which is probably there because of some legacy limitation) until they release a device with more usb ports, which they probably won’t. macOS isn’t supposed to run on your pc motherboard after all.
But I agree that it’s annoying. I was daily driving a hackintosh with catalina for two years. Wasn’t the easiest setup.
Yeah, and from an Apple POV it makes sense to take away common ports just to make the phone .01mm thinner and sell you a shitty peripheral to replace the hardware port.
Doesn’t mean it’s a good idea or something that people would accept from a company they didn’t have cult like devotion towards.
I‘d argue though, there is a difference between a technical limitation apple just doesn’t care about resolving because it just doesn’t matter for any device their software is officially available on and them intentionally removing features.
Like, I don’t think the port limit was an executive decision but some random programmer’s who wrote that code like 25 years ago when he decided that one byte must suffice for the total count of usb ports.
I mean, it’s pretty easy to imagine needing 10 USB ports. I think I’m using around that many myself on my desktop. Then just add a couple more for things that may be things needed temporarily.
My kids gaming pc tower has a set of usb ports on the back and a set on the front. It’s great to have options, but he’s not going to use them all. Ie he has ten usb ports for the five he uses
Fair enough, but not everyone is your kid. Needing to have things plugged in at once shouldn’t need defending. I would prefer to leave things plugged in if I can. USB supports that, so why wouldn’t I?
The thing is though, every situation is different. I’m glad the designers of USB did not think like you do. Having the ability to use a lot of devices might be rare but it’s definitely been needed before, whether or not others can imagine it.
one physical USB-A socket on the machine can read as two USB ports virtually due to that physical socket supporting USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 at the same time, I believe its a backwards compat thing. I think there might also be internal (virtual) USB ports as well but don’t quote me on that. On mobos with 8+ physical USB A sockets it can easily get past the 16 limit unless you specifically disable the USB 2.0 port, which then might break older devices relying on that and it becomes a whole headache. this person explains it better than I can
someone is going to nerdsnipe me so i will add that technically its 15 registered ports per USB controller, so you can add a dongle with another USB controller and have more than 15. a mobo usually only has 1 USB controller for way more than 15 USB ports though, Apple added this arbitrary restriction for no reason since none of their devices have that many ports. so a typical PC motherboard just straight up destabilizes the system lmfao
Okay but what kind of application is it used for that you exceed 15 ports filled??
Are you an apple dev?
When I worked for Apple, I do remember the iOS devs having racks of iOS devices all being flashed at the same time off a single Mac. But I don’t remember the count and this was years ago—like Snow Leopard to El Cap era.
I was just kind of data analytics, but the labs were near my area, so can’t really give much more info, but mildly interesting, I guess?
Well, from an Apple pov, there’s no reason to change that limit (which is probably there because of some legacy limitation) until they release a device with more usb ports, which they probably won’t. macOS isn’t supposed to run on your pc motherboard after all.
But I agree that it’s annoying. I was daily driving a hackintosh with catalina for two years. Wasn’t the easiest setup.
Yeah, and from an Apple POV it makes sense to take away common ports just to make the phone .01mm thinner and sell you a shitty peripheral to replace the hardware port.
Doesn’t mean it’s a good idea or something that people would accept from a company they didn’t have cult like devotion towards.
I‘d argue though, there is a difference between a technical limitation apple just doesn’t care about resolving because it just doesn’t matter for any device their software is officially available on and them intentionally removing features.
Like, I don’t think the port limit was an executive decision but some random programmer’s who wrote that code like 25 years ago when he decided that one byte must suffice for the total count of usb ports.
Yeah, but from Apple’s perspective, a lot of shitty things make more sense but I still ain’t okay with them :)
I was thinking of trying to do hackintosh before I switched to Linux. I think I dodged a bullet.
I am just asking what they are doing to need that as I cannot think of anything off the top of my head
I mean, it’s pretty easy to imagine needing 10 USB ports. I think I’m using around that many myself on my desktop. Then just add a couple more for things that may be things needed temporarily.
My kids gaming pc tower has a set of usb ports on the back and a set on the front. It’s great to have options, but he’s not going to use them all. Ie he has ten usb ports for the five he uses
Fair enough, but not everyone is your kid. Needing to have things plugged in at once shouldn’t need defending. I would prefer to leave things plugged in if I can. USB supports that, so why wouldn’t I?
I mean the point is there’s a convenience factor where you might have twice as many ports as you’re willing to use
It’s not just that you might have more devices or want to leave them plugged in, but you may find some ports undesirable to use
I can hardly imagine needing 15 ports at the same time.
Doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in your imagination.
Well I am currently using about 5-6 ports on my PC and 2 of those are not really needed. I can imagine using a couple more but certainly not 15.
I could fill them up but I don’t have a scenario where I actually need that many things plugged in at the same time in the first place.
The thing is though, every situation is different. I’m glad the designers of USB did not think like you do. Having the ability to use a lot of devices might be rare but it’s definitely been needed before, whether or not others can imagine it.
one physical USB-A socket on the machine can read as two USB ports virtually due to that physical socket supporting USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 at the same time, I believe its a backwards compat thing. I think there might also be internal (virtual) USB ports as well but don’t quote me on that. On mobos with 8+ physical USB A sockets it can easily get past the 16 limit unless you specifically disable the USB 2.0 port, which then might break older devices relying on that and it becomes a whole headache. this person explains it better than I can
Ah I see. So it’s more like plugging in 5-10 things exceeds the limit.
Don’t judge, I need this RAID 0 array of 30 flash drives for my workflow!