USB 3 and old folk

[PerranOak]

So, I will finally buy a new laptop after 13 years!

Two things confuse:

USB 3: is it completely compatible with the old USB on my 13 year old laptop? I mean both functionally and connector.

Do I need WINDOWS 10 Pro or will “Home” suffice? It’s going to be used primarily for MPLABX, Linux virtual machine and general programming: Python and maybe some Arduino stuff now and then.

Cheers.

[Yansi]

USB3 is pretty old shit and I think works even under windows XP, if you have XHCI mode working.

Do not worry, everything will work just fine.  Any USB3 device must be able to fall back to USB2 mode. (You may only get limited device performance, or no performance at all, if USB2 bandwidth is not sufficient for device operation - as may be the case of some HD video grabbers, etc.)

[LateLesley]

USB 3 type A connectors will be. Just watch that you do get a machine with type A, as there is a type C connector which will not be compatible with your old stuff.

https://www.tripplite.com/products/usb-connectivity-types-standards

[Yansi]

You can plug even the old shit into the USB-C. Just get a proper adaptor.

[MrMobodies]

Do I need WINDOWS 10 Pro or will “Home” suffice? It’s going to be used primarily for MPLABX, Linux virtual machine and general programming: Python and maybe some Arduino stuff now and then.

If you don't like the feature updates and "App store" stuff with things added/changed there is the LTSC Enterprise edition that I have been using with some alterations:
https://softkeys.uk/collections/windows/products/windows-10-home-product-key-32-64-bit-retail-version-2

I brought a few of those over the last year for £14.99 from that site and I haven't any problems so far with the keys.

[Whales]

Your questions

Windows 10: any version will meet your needs.  Pro just has some more corporate management features and bitlocker.  They're all ad-filled junk (except maybe LTSC?  Have not tried it yet).

USB: as other have said, as long as it's the traditional shape of USB port (referred to as 'type A') then anything you plug into it should work.  USB3 type A ports are backwards compatible with USB2 type A ports, and look almost identical externally.

IMHO avoid type C if you can (make sure to get a laptop with at least some proper type A ports).  It's a callback to the 90's where everything used the same DB9 serial cable but completely different protocols over it, so you only find out whether or not something is supported by your device by trying it (and by using the right type of magic cable that looks almost identical to the others from the outside).  There are even situations where you have to unplug the connector, turn it around and plug it back in again (it's reversible) for things to work (some DP modes IIRC).

You can buy dongles that convert type C ports into type A, which you then carry around with your laptop.  Dongle Life (TM).

A few other bits of advice

Make sure you're buying a laptop that uses a removable disk, whether it be an M.2 stick or a traditional SATA connector.  A lot of laptops now come soldered-down MMC flash that cannot be upgraded (without research, prayer & reflow).  When this flash dies the laptop becomes a brick.  Lookup teardown photos of your model to find out if you're not sure.

Sadly less and less laptops have replaceable RAM these days, it's also often soldered in.  Something to be aware of.  Does not typically die, but can be annoying later on.

Touchscreens are more expensive than standard screens if/when you break the LCD.  My laptop is a traditional screen with bezel that I can disassemble and replace for less than 100AUD, but touchscreens tend to be glued laminates.

EDIT: Don't waste your money on anti-virus products.  Win10's in-built Windows Defender (enabled by default) has made them obsolete for home users.

If the laptop comes pre-installed with lots of junk by the manufacturer, then either re-install Win10 or use a tool like BCU.  Installing Win10 is pretty fast BUT you then have to wait ages afterwards for windows update to churn away in the background (often requiring reboots).

During initial win10 setup DO NOT CONNECT TO THE INTERNET.  If you do then it will force you to create a Microsoft account.  You literally have to hit "I don't have internet" a few times to convince the first time setup wizard to let you use a traditional local windows account instead.  They have become really heavy handed with this in the past few releases.   Connect yourself after it's all done (and you may then get nagged a second time, but you can tell it to bugger off).

On that note: you can say no to everything checkbox/slider in the first time setup wizard (and later nagging prompts).  It's all very cleverly worded data collection with little to no practical value for you in return.

[westfw]

Anything above USB2 runs the risk of "my cable doesn't have all the signals that this peripheral wants", just like in the bad old days with DB25, DE9, etc :-(  On the bright side, everything is supposed to revert to USB2; it just might not perform as well as expected.
I've never been clear on what "Pro" offers.  It may have more to do with how the system can be "administered" than with features that are visible to users.

[ejeffrey]

Anything above USB2 runs the risk of "my cable doesn't have all the signals that this peripheral wants", just like in the bad old days with DB25, DE9, etc :-(

This isn't too bad for old school USB3 with a type-A connector.  black = USB2 only, blue = USB3. Red is 10 gigabit if you care.  The 'B' side of the cable is also visibly different.  It is a much more annoying problem for type-C where there are many more options yet neither the cable nor the connectors have any indication of what options are supported.

[Berni]

USB3.0 is fully forwards and backwards compatible.

You can plug a USB 3.0 device into a USB 2.0 or older port and it will work. You can also use a USB cable designed for a USB 2.0 device and plug it into a USB 3.0 device as even tho the shape of the 3.0 connector is larger the 2.0 cable still fits in it and works. But you obviously get the degraded performance of the device being limited to USB 2.0 speeds.

Drivers are also not a problem, works fine with Win 7. You are going to have other issues if you try to install Win 7 on latest PC hardware (like not even seeing your boot drive), but they are issues that can be overcome with enough persistence and googling.

The USB-C connector however is NOT compatible with everything. The only thing guaranteed on USB-C is having a USB 2.0 bus. All other functionality is optional (Including USB3.0) so when plugging a USB-C device such as a hub/dock into a USB-C host such as a laptop it might not work. This is because the extra pins in USB-C are available to be used for USB3, Thunderbolt, DisplayPort, HDMI... etc so these only work if both the host and device support these pins being used for that. This is a huge fail for the otherwise beautifully standardized and compatible USB port. 

[james_s]

USB 3 type A connectors will be. Just watch that you do get a machine with type A, as there is a type C connector which will not be compatible with your old stuff.

https://www.tripplite.com/products/usb-connectivity-types-standards

Unless you buy a Mac, even that is not really an issue, virtually all other computers that have USB-C also have USB 3.0 as well, and as someone else stated, there are adapters to plug standard USB stuff into USB-C.

Personally I'm not a fan of USB-C, it tries to be everything to everyone and the result is a mess, with stuff that physically plugs in but doesn't always actually work due to various levels of support. It was a good idea on paper, but in practice it is just too complicated and the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. I own zero peripherals with USB-C on them, with my work laptop (Mac) I use adapters for absolutely everything I plug into it other than the included charger.

[MrMobodies]

Your questions

Windows 10: any version will meet your needs.  Pro just has some more corporate management features and bitlocker.  They're all ad-filled junk (except maybe LTSC?  Have not tried it yet).

I haven't come across any yet and I hope not.

I could not tolerate that behaviour when things are installed and removed.

See "Apps" with Classicshell attached screenshot.
Nothing else in there at the moment.

[Someone]

USB 3 type A connectors will be. Just watch that you do get a machine with type A, as there is a type C connector which will not be compatible with your old stuff.

Unless you buy a Mac, even that is not really an issue, virtually all other computers that have USB-C also have USB 3.0 as well, and as someone else stated, there are adapters to plug standard USB stuff into USB-C.

Personally I'm not a fan of USB-C, it tries to be everything to everyone and the result is a mess, with stuff that physically plugs in but doesn't always actually work due to various levels of support. It was a good idea on paper, but in practice it is just too complicated and the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. I own zero peripherals with USB-C on them, with my work laptop (Mac) I use adapters for absolutely everything I plug into it other than the included charger.

You're doing it wrong? Note that Mac are one of the platforms that does guarantee any USB-C port is USB3 or higher (you perhaps simply wanted to say the Macs only have USB-C and no USB-A ? then why not say that rather than the convoluted and wrong nonsense above). And macs have all the ports across the machine being symmetric/identical so there is no need to put power or monitors on specific ports (which has been a problem with other brands).

Its not that hard, USB-C has USB-2, then optionally it will add in USB-3 or USB-4 (with further optional alt modes. embedded on the same electrical standard), and optionally thunderbolt (again. with further optional alt modes. embedded on the same electrical standard).

The only time this makes any sort of confusion is when manufacturers don't differentiate the ports on the product, and some have different alt mode capabilities or thunderbolt. Every other case they just drop to the highest supported USB standard (which might be speed limited by the use of a cheap cable, but it still works).

For docks or monitors, just leave their high speed (expensive) cable plugged into them and its done.

[Bassman59]

USB 3 type A connectors will be. Just watch that you do get a machine with type A, as there is a type C connector which will not be compatible with your old stuff.

https://www.tripplite.com/products/usb-connectivity-types-standards

Unless you buy a Mac, even that is not really an issue, virtually all other computers that have USB-C also have USB 3.0 as well, and as someone else stated, there are adapters to plug standard USB stuff into USB-C.

All current desktop Macs have both Thunderbolt 3 (a superset of USB-C on the same type of connector) as well as USB 3 Type A ports.

[james_s]

USB 3 type A connectors will be. Just watch that you do get a machine with type A, as there is a type C connector which will not be compatible with your old stuff.

Unless you buy a Mac, even that is not really an issue, virtually all other computers that have USB-C also have USB 3.0 as well, and as someone else stated, there are adapters to plug standard USB stuff into USB-C.

Personally I'm not a fan of USB-C, it tries to be everything to everyone and the result is a mess, with stuff that physically plugs in but doesn't always actually work due to various levels of support. It was a good idea on paper, but in practice it is just too complicated and the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. I own zero peripherals with USB-C on them, with my work laptop (Mac) I use adapters for absolutely everything I plug into it other than the included charger.

You're doing it wrong? Note that Mac are one of the platforms that does guarantee any USB-C port is USB3 or higher (you perhaps simply wanted to say the Macs only have USB-C and no USB-A ? then why not say that rather than the convoluted and wrong nonsense above). And macs have all the ports across the machine being symmetric/identical so there is no need to put power or monitors on specific ports (which has been a problem with other brands).

Its not that hard, USB-C has USB-2, then optionally it will add in USB-3 or USB-4 (with further optional alt modes. embedded on the same electrical standard), and optionally thunderbolt (again. with further optional alt modes. embedded on the same electrical standard).

The only time this makes any sort of confusion is when manufacturers don't differentiate the ports on the product, and some have different alt mode capabilities or thunderbolt. Every other case they just drop to the highest supported USB standard (which might be speed limited by the use of a cheap cable, but it still works).

For docks or monitors, just leave their high speed (expensive) cable plugged into them and its done.

"You're doing it wrong" is such a typical Apple/fanboi response. Blame the customer, the machine is absolutely perfect, the company is run by gods. 

As for the rest being "nonsense" I don't think you understand what I said. I have a 2017 Macbook Pro right here in front of me, it has no ports on it besides USB-C, I need adapters for absolutely every peripheral I have, that is simply an objective fact. I have no doubt that the USB-C ports on this particular laptop are properly engineered and fully capable but that does not change another fact, that the USB-C ports on many other devices are NOT fully capable despite having the same connector. I generally like this machine, but it is not without faults. The touchbar is a gimmick that after living with it for 3 years I am firmly in the camp of preferring physical keys, the keyboard is garbage, it's noisy and very small bits of debris cause it to malfunction, and the complete lack of any ports other than USB-C is something that annoys me every time I go to plug something into it. Yes the USB-C ports are electrically compatible with other formats but I need adapters for all of it. I would much prefer to just have USB-3 ports, an ethernet port and a  displayport like my Lenovo has. Putting power and other signals on separate, distinct connectors is not a "problem", it's a feature.

USB-C is a solution looking for a problem, the most common "problem" I hear about is people who cannot figure out how to plug a simple USB connector in the right way around. It is more complex, more expensive, requires expensive cables, and years after release it is still a complete mess. There are all sorts of devices that have partially implemented USB-C ports and it will stay that way because fully implementing the standard costs money and on budget devices that cost is significant. 

[james_s]

All current desktop Macs have both Thunderbolt 3 (a superset of USB-C on the same type of connector) as well as USB 3 Type A ports.

I don't have a desktop Mac, I don't know anyone who has one anymore, everyone has laptops. I should have said "Macbook" but I got lazy.

[Someone]

USB 3 type A connectors will be. Just watch that you do get a machine with type A, as there is a type C connector which will not be compatible with your old stuff.

Unless you buy a Mac, even that is not really an issue, virtually all other computers that have USB-C also have USB 3.0 as well, and as someone else stated, there are adapters to plug standard USB stuff into USB-C.

Personally I'm not a fan of USB-C, it tries to be everything to everyone and the result is a mess, with stuff that physically plugs in but doesn't always actually work due to various levels of support. It was a good idea on paper, but in practice it is just too complicated and the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. I own zero peripherals with USB-C on them, with my work laptop (Mac) I use adapters for absolutely everything I plug into it other than the included charger.

You're doing it wrong? Note that Mac are one of the platforms that does guarantee any USB-C port is USB3 or higher (you perhaps simply wanted to say the Macs only have USB-C and no USB-A ? then why not say that rather than the convoluted and wrong nonsense above). And macs have all the ports across the machine being symmetric/identical so there is no need to put power or monitors on specific ports (which has been a problem with other brands).

Its not that hard, USB-C has USB-2, then optionally it will add in USB-3 or USB-4 (with further optional alt modes. embedded on the same electrical standard), and optionally thunderbolt (again. with further optional alt modes. embedded on the same electrical standard).

The only time this makes any sort of confusion is when manufacturers don't differentiate the ports on the product, and some have different alt mode capabilities or thunderbolt. Every other case they just drop to the highest supported USB standard (which might be speed limited by the use of a cheap cable, but it still works).

For docks or monitors, just leave their high speed (expensive) cable plugged into them and its done.

"You're doing it wrong" is such a typical Apple/fanboi response. Blame the customer, the machine is absolutely perfect, the company is run by gods. 

As for the rest being "nonsense" I don't think you understand what I said. I have a 2017 Macbook Pro right here in front of me, it has no ports on it besides USB-C, I need adapters for absolutely every peripheral I have, that is simply an objective fact. I have no doubt that the USB-C ports on this particular laptop are properly engineered and fully capable but that does not change another fact, that the USB-C ports on many other devices are NOT fully capable despite having the same connector. I generally like this machine, but it is not without faults. The touchbar is a gimmick that after living with it for 3 years I am firmly in the camp of preferring physical keys, the keyboard is garbage, it's noisy and very small bits of debris cause it to malfunction, and the complete lack of any ports other than USB-C is something that annoys me every time I go to plug something into it. Yes the USB-C ports are electrically compatible with other formats but I need adapters for all of it. I would much prefer to just have USB-3 ports, an ethernet port and a  displayport like my Lenovo has. Putting power and other signals on separate, distinct connectors is not a "problem", it's a feature.

USB-C is a solution looking for a problem, the most common "problem" I hear about is people who cannot figure out how to plug a simple USB connector in the right way around. It is more complex, more expensive, requires expensive cables, and years after release it is still a complete mess. There are all sorts of devices that have partially implemented USB-C ports and it will stay that way because fully implementing the standard costs money and on budget devices that cost is significant.

You're still going off on your rant and failing to use the technical terms correctly, I'm fairly certain this is what you were intending to communicate:

"I don't like this design that has no legacy USB-A connectors" which is true of all laptop Macs, and few laptops from other brands.

Instead you introduced USB3 compatibility (which does have many nuances), but the Macs are actually some of the best on that side of things. Thats what the OPs question was about, is USB-3 backwards compatible? yes! Does it have some confusion? yes! Is it confusing on Macs? no.

Very few devices have captive USB cables/connection ("thumb" drives being the most common example), change those out for cables with USB-C at the other end (not expensive, $2-5 each) and the upgrade is done once, there is no need for "dongles" ongoing, and USB-A/B/C cabling isn't showing any price premium in the wholesale channels. Every conference venue and meeting room I go to defaults to USB-C as their video connection, its that widespread and well supported across all laptops, HDMI is relegated to the adaptor/dongle now.

So it appears like you have some axe to grind, and spew FUD rather than facts.

[SilverSolder]

[...]
So it appears like you have some axe to grind, and spew FUD rather than facts.

Consider someone older, who has perhaps 10 or 15 different computers in their home and lab, along with dozens of USB peripherals.  What we don't want, is some non-standard device coming into the "family" and being difficult to connect to everything else.  That is a barrier to USB-C right there.   

If you are buying your first PC or notebook and don't own any peripherals, I think USB-C is an acceptable solution, even though it is probably primarily designed to make the older stuff obsolete and start a new upgrade cycle (yes, I know, "there is no such thing as planned obsolescence"...  "there is no inflation"...  and I have a bridge for sale to the highest bidder!    ).

Apple sometimes fails by making things so friendly that they become obscure:  For example, my wife has owned an iPad for many years now...  but the difficulties in getting big video files off the iPad onto her PC is driving her crazy, and she keeps running out of space on the iPad... she tells me there is no easy way to see what you can delete / uninstall to improve the situation.  She says they seem to want to make her subscribe to various cloud services to make it work.  ...so, she is now asking for a "Windows" laptop, because "I never have any problems moving or deleting files on my PC".   This is despite the fact of how she loves the design, form factor and the beautiful screen of the iPad, and is appreciative of the Apple store's excellent customer service.

[Someone]

[...]
So it appears like you have some axe to grind, and spew FUD rather than facts.

Consider someone older, who has perhaps 10 or 15 different computers in their home and lab, along with dozens of USB peripherals.  What we don't want, is some non-standard device coming into the "family" and being difficult to connect to everything else.  That is a barrier to USB-C right there.

Sure, but that is very different to the more typical users, and the OP who stated 1 computer, looking at replacement. You can come up with all sorts of corner cases to support any position, but what has been posted above is simply factually wrong as people mixup/confuse the terminology (and goes off into peoples pet rants etc). Retrocomputing enthusiasts and embedded developers bemoaned the disappearance of physical serial ports, at some point you get over it or just run a hilariously out of date setup (engineering/scientific labs kept 3.5" floppies in use way past their useby date!).

USB-C can be really confusing when a computer has multiple ports that have different capabilities but the same connector. Thats exactly the problem that the Macs have eliminated on their machines, but still remains on many other brands/models. There are some good examples from HP (and probably others) where they make it really clear by having one/two thunderbolt ports on USB-C and differentiate other ports with USB-A connectors which is probably the middle ground that suits most people.

Apple sometimes fails by making things so friendly that they become obscure:  For example, my wife has owned an iPad for many years now...  but the difficulties in getting big video files off the iPad onto her PC is driving her crazy, and she keeps running out of space on the iPad... she tells me there is no easy way to see what you can delete / uninstall to improve the situation.  She says they seem to want to make her subscribe to various cloud services to make it work.  ...so, she is now asking for a "Windows" laptop, because "I never have any problems moving or deleting files on my PC".   This is despite the fact of how she loves the design, form factor and the beautiful screen of the iPad, and is appreciative of the Apple store's excellent customer service.

Try any recent windows or Mac OS and its the same thing, pretending like storage is not file based and pushing you to store things in (possibly application specific) containers that aren't obvious where they are or what format the files are in. The iPhone/iPad model of computing pushed that concept and it has stuck as the new default.

P.S. record video with the built in camera function (not a 3rd party app), then the iWhatever device mounts like any other USB camera and is accessible/browsable with a normal looking file system:
https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/image-capture/imgcp1003/mac
Ignore all the guides which try and push you to import it to one of those "modern" apps or via the cloud which pretends like none of this infrastructure exists and hides the filesystem. Pretty much any consumer camera shows up identically, the wonders of sticking with underlying standards. But there seems to be some chatter about people having issues with that method for "large files" on iWhatever devices, no technical details just annoyance.

[SilverSolder]

I believe we are having a violent agreement about most of the things you said here! 

[...]
P.S. record video with the built in camera function (not a 3rd party app), then the iWhatever device mounts like any other USB camera and is accessible/browsable with a normal looking file system:
https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/image-capture/imgcp1003/mac
[...]

She does record with the built-in iPad camera function.  It is not clear to me how the Image Capture application helps transferring video files to a Windows PC -  does the application make the iPad appear like a USB mass storage device or something like that?

[james_s]

"I don't like this design that has no legacy USB-A connectors" which is true of all laptop Macs, and few laptops from other brands.

The first part yes, that is exactly what I was trying to say, was it not completely obvious? I didn't think I would have to break it down so explicitly. The second part is nonsense, I have a 1.5 year old Asus laptop right next to me that belonged to my dad, it has (in addition to a USB-C port that cannot be used to power the machine) a full complement of ports. I have my Lenovo laptop that I'm typing this on right now, full complement of ports, no USB-C. The mini PC that runs my Plex server has USB-C (which doesn't work with USB-C to HDMI, and doesn't work to power the machine), along with a full complement of ports. My newest Raspberry Pi has USB-C but it's *only* usable for powering the machine. The Macbook Pro, second oldest machine out of all of these has USB-C, only, nothing else. I have about a dozen other mostly older computers and similar devices in the house that don't have USB-C.

Now I did go on a bit of a rant that was not really intended, but my position comes from life experience, not made up FUD. I've been living with this MBP for almost 3 years and I have to use dongles to connect absolutely everything except for the charger, this is not some hypothetical edge case, this is my actual day to day life, I have a pencil pouch full of USB-C-to-whatever dongles that I keep in my backpack and so do most of my colleagues. Sure, I could go out and buy all new stuff, but I have dozens of thumb drives, probably >100 cables, numerous mice, trackpads, keyboards, barcode scanner, cameras, etc, etc, many of which do have captive cables, and other stuff that would require all new cables and at that point I'd need separate sets of cables for my machines that have USB-C and those that don't. You seem to be extremely tunnel-visioned looking at one specific use case and assuming that everyone else is in the same position as you. They are not.

Bottom line is USB-C brings nothing to the table that I value, and it brings a bunch of hassle, none insurmountable but it adds up, and I just really strongly dislike computers that have ONE port and nothing else, especially when it is done to make the thing thinner than it needs to be, when every single other computer that I own has all sorts of different types of port, each purpose designed for a specific task. Maybe you can see why that ONE machine is annoying to me, like when you've got a house full of devices that use AA batteries and then that one stupid thing that uses C batteries or something that nothing else you own uses. 

[Someone]

I believe we are having a violent agreement about most of the things you said here! 

[...]
P.S. record video with the built in camera function (not a 3rd party app), then the iWhatever device mounts like any other USB camera and is accessible/browsable with a normal looking file system:
https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/image-capture/imgcp1003/mac
[...]

She does record with the built-in iPad camera function.  It is not clear to me how the Image Capture application helps transferring video files to a Windows PC -  does the application make the iPad appear like a USB mass storage device or something like that?

Oh yes, we are agreeing! But try to keep it balanced and neutral rather than jumping for gotchas/fails.

The handshake with the device requesting the files is a little more complex, to make things "compatible" there is an option to change how they are served up. Depending on what software you try to look at the files with it will show up differently, but there should be a USB mass storage mount if you go looking (and haven't had some other software turn it off/hide it). It appears as a filesystem with nice files, but they can get switched up (dynamically) underneath:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250927739
Change the setting to just give me the damn files, and someone else complains about that, lol. Cant please everyone, the options are too complex for most users to fully understand/explore, yet not complex enough to support every possible workflow.

[Someone]

"I don't like this design that has no legacy USB-A connectors" which is true of all laptop Macs, and few laptops from other brands.

The first part yes, that is exactly what I was trying to say, was it not completely obvious?

No it was not obvious and clearly wrong. I politely left the door open for you to clarify but instead you go off on more rant.... and now more and more.

I'd need separate sets of cables for my machines that have USB-C and those that don't

So like others above you're in a mixed environment and want to share peripherals between different computers interchangeably. Welcome to the pain of a transition. Our workplace has a mixture of docks/hubs during this transition and expects to be USB-C exclusive within a year or so. Or just stick with all USB-A and don't get any of the benefits of power, protocol, and bandwidth improvements that are only available on USB-C. Like the users without USB-C here who can't use the newer monitors. A valid choice but putting your head in the sand. Like the people who kept insisting on VGA or DVI connections as the primary video output on their laptops when DisplayPort or HDMI was the more common standard.

The OP is single device, not going to have this "problem"

[SilverSolder]

Seems to me the smart solution is to have USB-C along with the traditional ports, then slowly dropping the old ports.

I have a Dell Optiplex here from the 2010s that still has a serial port!  Wonderful for Arduinos, old GPS units, etc. etc.

As an active computer user, it neither make sense to limit yourself to either only the "latest and greatest" nor "only serial and parallel, and DOS v3"! 

[NiHaoMike]

Theoretically, any USB 1.1 or 2.0 device should work with a USB 3.0 port, but in practice, I have found counterexamples. It doesn't happen often but do try plugging a USB 1.1 or 2.0 device into a 2.0 port if you're having problems with it.

[Bassman59]

All current desktop Macs have both Thunderbolt 3 (a superset of USB-C on the same type of connector) as well as USB 3 Type A ports.

I don't have a desktop Mac, I don't know anyone who has one anymore, everyone has laptops. I should have said "Macbook" but I got lazy.

I have that 2017 MacBook Pro, too -- I'm typing this response on that machine! -- and when I bought it, I also got a couple USB-C-to-USB-B (device-side) cables and USB-C-to-micro-USB-B (also device side), and that covers pretty much everything. I also bought a four-port hub (USB-C to four USB-A 3.0) which is handy for the same reason all USB hubs are handy.

It really is not as painful as everyone makes it seem!

I do think the keyboard sucks.

I have the iMac because I like having a proper desktop machine, with multiple monitors -- and the 5k display is seriously amazing -- and the various storage options. Plus it's the 10-core i9, quite a fast machine.

As for "I don't know anyone who has a desktop anymore," most people I know have both a desktop machine and a laptop. And the few who are laptop-only have a dock like the excellent CalDigit Thunderbolt 3 dock to give them all the ports they need when doing desk-bound work.