Thunderbolt Rant

[John B]

This the most disappointing interface standard ever. Do you agree??

Just about every USB device I've ever owned, from cheap to expensive, can still connect to a modern computer, and interface on the hardware level, even if the software drivers have long been outdated.

Thunderbolt was presented as a faster, low latency interface, with both the motherboard hardware and connected devices being considerably more expensive. My main use for thunderbolt has been audio interfaces. Thunderbolt 2 was fairly quickly superseded by TB3 and with it came the change to a USB-C plug over the Mini Displayport.

At first things were OK, because you can buy TB2>TB3 adapters, but over time the software and BIOS seemed to degrade. For example on MacOS Catalina, TB was very reliable and could be hot swapped. Upgrading past that resulted in hot swap failing to work (computer had to be booted with devices already on and connected). Dropouts began to occur, requiring a reboot. These could have been a result of OS, BIOS or device firmware updates. Who knows.

But what really takes the cake is that apparently TB4/USB4 controllers have now dropped support for TB1/2 devices (meaning they HAD support for them). So now my expensive TB interfaces are probably going to be USB2.0 interfaces going forward.

Of course I figured this stuff out after paying a premium for a USB4 motherboard 

[Veteran68]

FWIW, I can't say that I share your experience. But I don't really do anything with audio other than a headset for virtual meetings, so that might be the difference.

I'm on my second Dell laptop at work, docked via TB dock with all peripherals connected (2 external monitors, several USB devices, ethernet) and it just works. At home I have a MacBook Pro 16" i9 that I dock with a CalDigit TB3 dock. My dedicated workbench laptop is my old 2012 MacBook Pro Retina with the mini-DP TB2 ports, and while I have a few TB2 accessories like Ethernet and video adapters that work fine, I didn't have a dock for it. My current and previous Windows desktop motherboards had TB support but I haven't used it for anything other than regular USB-C as I don't have any Windows TB peripherals.

So for me at least, the overall experience has been okay. I was very happy to see TB3 adopt the USB-C port standard. I hated the mini-DP connectors.

[AntiProtonBoy]

You could buy a Thunderbolt 2 or 3 expansion card for your older devices.

[ejeffrey]

I haven't had much problem with thunderbolt docking stations, but likewise I just use a standard USB headset, no special audio devices.  However:

Upgrading past that resulted in hot swap failing to work (computer had to be booted with devices already on and connected). Dropouts began to occur, requiring a reboot. These could have been a result of OS, BIOS or device firmware updates. Who knows.

Reminded me of one problem I did have when I first started using it, which is security.  I've only used it under Windows, not MacOS, so I don't know how things are different, but in Windows, depending on your BIOS settings, you may require devices to be approved before use.  Thunderbolt devices are basically equivalent to a plug in PCIe card, and they can able to do direct DMA just like Firewire could, which is a huge security hole.  Early implementations, or those using thunderbolt add-in adapters didn't have any security checks, but now most OS and firmware requires thunderbolt devices to be authorized before use, or restrict unapproved devices to partial functionality.  However, since thunderbolt is often used for displays and other hardware needed for boot-up, firmware may auto-approve any devices that are connected at boot time.