All the other brands went along

As long as you're not an apple cult member you do.

Apple brought back the mag charger.

I wish it still had the SD reader and one A port, but it doesn’t really come up that often. Just 3D printing and only because I’m too lazy to set up a octoprint server or whatever.
- MBPs all have HDMI and SD slots… but Definitely set up the octopi with a cheap webcam. I’ve run one for years now and it’s so nice to be able to kick off and check on prints from my phone. Not to mention it doesn’t matter what computer I slice on and the files are small enough that I have gcode for almost everything I’ve printed for instant access to reprint whenever.
- An octopi is a fun project, for mine I printed a new internal enclosure for the mainboard that has mounts for the pi, so the printer is completely integrated with it (never did finish setting up the internal power routing to power it directly off the power supply, but that's also completely doable)
  
  I purposely don’t do the printer PS powers the octopi thing… I like to be able to drop some gcode on it for later or do updates when the printer isn’t on.
- they do have SDXC card readers:
  
  2024 16" macbook pro: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/121554
  
  Charging and Expansion
  
  SDXC card slot
  
  HDMI port
  
  3.5 mm headphone jack
  
  MagSafe 3 port
  
  Three Thunderbolt 5 (USB-C) ports with support for:
  
  Charging
  
  DisplayPort
  
  Thunderbolt 5 (up to 120Gb/s)
  
  Thunderbolt 4 (up to 40Gb/s)
  
  USB 4 (up to 40Gb/s)
  
  Ahh that’s nice, I bought the 2015 right after the Touch Bar pros went in sale because of the “you only need USB c now” ethos.
  
  I later inherited a Touch Bar MacBook Pro, and it has frequent charging problems with USB C.
  
  It’s gonna be time for an upgrade in a couple more years, and it’s nice to know that the new MBPs are sane again.

It's beautiful.

While I personally prefer this, I'm going to guess that the majority of people are generally not going to be using more than 2 or three usb ports at once. My take is that for most people, 2 Cs, an A, DP or HDMI would be optimal.

The availability of BT and wifi peripherals make this acceptable for many.

I still have a cutting plotter that uses RS232, but that's connected to an oldish desktop, on the network, so a laptop never gets connected physically.

I'm not saying that this is good, simply that this is probably acceptable for many.

I have the same mac pictured above, and also a windows laptop with many ports.

The mac I plug into my work center via a single usb-c connection which charges it, connects it to my external monitor, and connects it to all of my USB equipment (about 6 items ranging from m&k to music equipment). Having only the one wire is huge in terms of making it easier to break down the machine from its setup and pack it up for the road.

The pc is connected separately to power as it can’t be powered through the usb-c, and to the monitor separately for some esoteric reason. So then I need a third cable to connect it to my equipment.

So in my case the less-is-more approach is actually preferable

that all being said

I’m sure other windows laptops can be configured with a one-wire solution just fine. And I don’t mean to pretend the 2x usb-c config was a popular choice or anything. Only on like two models or something had it. The newer macbooks brought back sd card slots and hdmi and everything by popular demand.

I looked into it and you can still run everything off of just one usb-c on those ones, so at the end of the day more options is just better for more people
- Was just using a new ROG something something laptop for a job. The power connector is some little rectangle thing and it almost fit in a USBc. I was surprised when it was unique. 1 wire aint happening on that.
- The mac I plug into my work center via a single usb-c connection which charges it, connects it to my external monitor, and connects it to all of my USB equipment
  
  I do this with my Dell, which also has many ports ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  
  Thank you for proving me correct!

Look at all those ports I'll never need

We should have had USBC 20 years ago.

Yep. My work laptop:

Haha I have almost exactly the same one. Probably a slightly older model. Works for most stuff but mine only has 8GB RAM which is a bit of a killer...

It's most likely expandable, have you checked?
- It's a work laptop, not really my place to go fiddling with it, unfortunately

What model of Dell is that?

Precision 3581

Dell makes some fantastic enterprise laptops

You have options.

I don't. We have standardized on Macbook Pros at work because otherwise we'd have to use the company-issued image, which really sucks for development work (multi-day turnaround to get anything approved).

I'm interested in replacing my current laptop (E495 Thinkpad), and it's really hard to find anything sensible w/ an RJ-45 port, especially one w/ decent Linux support. I want something in a similar form factor (14", or 16" if the bezels are really thin), but with updated internals (nothing fancy, but the 3500U is getting a bit slow for casual gaming).

I've been thinking of a Framework laptop, but the RJ-45 port is wack, only having 4 ports kind of sucks (they could have better density with those ports), and it doesn't have the Trackpoint that I like so much about my Thinkpad. We'll see what I end up with when I actually buy one though, but maybe I'll have to take another look at Dell's professional line.

anything decent with an RJ-45 port

Not sure if the current generation still has it, but work issued us techs with ThinkPad L14 Gen 3 laptops and I've been happy with it as a work device. It has an RJ-45 (was considered a requirement when they procured the laptops for techs) and mine has a Ryzen 5 Pro 5675U. Only complaints I would have for it is soldered USB-C connectors (which double as the only power source for the machine) and keyboard isn't as nice as my personal T480 although definitely still fine.

I would caution against the 12th gen Intel i7 ThinkPads, we've had multiple internally have overheating issues or stuck in connected standby. My colleague wishes he never replaced his original work issue (same as mine).
- The E14 and T14 still have them as well, and that's what I'm interested in. I used to buy T-series, but they started soldering the RAM, so I switched to E-series for my last one. I don't know if they solder RAM on the E14 though, they probably do.
  
  I really miss my T440, which had a fantastic keyboard, but my E495 is still better than my Macbook Pro (hate that keyboard) and pretty much every other laptop I've used. Not sure how the newer Thinkpads are, but I definitely don't want those ultra-thin keyboards so many vendors are going with.
  
  And yeah, I'll probably go AMD again, I want the APU perf and don't want a dGPU.

My 4 month old laptop has hdmi on the back, ethernet on the left, four usb 3.whatever slots with two on each side, two USB c slots on the right side, and a microsd slot.

I think it even has a 3.5mm headset jack but I'd have to get out of bed to check. I don't have any peripherals that use 3.5mm anymore though so it's just a nice little bonus.