Discussion on:

Apple's next-generation Macbook Pro drops Ethernet, optical drive

The problem isn't that Ethernet needs to go away - the problem is that RJ-45* is a huge plug for 8 tiny wires.
USB 3.0 cables have 8+ pins and USB 3.0 Micro-B connectors are tiny compared to RJ-45.

The pins in an RJ-45 plug are laid out quite efficiently - the problem is the rest of the connector is a big, useless hunk of plastic.

If IEEE and/or ISO can come out with a mini- or micro-Ethernet connector (which should be quite feasible), and the hardware companies adopt it, then we can have the speed and security of a wired NIC, without the ginormous jack that is currently needed for it.

This is, of course, until/unless Fiber becomes ubiquitous for (comparatively) short connections. At that point, Ethernet can die its quiet death. Until then, we will need a way to transmit bits over a copper-based LAN, and Ethernet cables are the best choice for that - they just need a smaller connector to make them a better choice than the slower, less secure, less reliable wireless in ultrabooks.

*Yes, I know that Ethernet doesn't technically use RJ-45, but the two specifications are close enough to be irrelevant to the point that I'm making

Going to be a lot of broken glass and repeat visits to the computer shop buying new cable replacements. Fiber is fast but it doesn't take the abuse that wire will.

Purchase the right cable and damage is less of an issue.

"These fiber optic patch cables are built using bend insensitive fiber and feature OFNR jackets along with LC style connectors" Quote from L-Com a cable supplier

Now finding a decent laptop with a serial port would be my godsend... hate those adapters, not likely to see a TB ->Comm dongle

We finally got our guys to move to embedded programming that doesn't require JTAG Ports. Everything works if off a free USB single. We can't hold everyone back for the embed guys. We need to push the embed guys up to at least ten years ago. As for how "broken" serial is? When a project manager is asking how prototype testing is going 1 day after releasing a 35MB image requiring an xmodem transfer and a 8MB ROM moving at all of 9600 baud, it's broken. Modern project management can't conceive of the fact that the transfer eats are so poor that transfer times are greater than their entire schedule.

In most cases the software is new enough to tolerate setting to arbitrary com port numbers so a USB adapter will function. But in the rare cases it doesn't I have to hope that the equipment is retired before the laptop that supports it dies. And yes 9600baud truly sucks.

for as long as the legacy equipment is out there.

All of my support software requires COM4 or lower. After corporate took away my laptop with the serial port, I went through four USB to serial adapters trying to find one that would reliably support being set as COM1 or COM4.

Luckily, most of my equipment supports multiple transfer speeds, so I have the max boogie (115200) option if I need it for large transfers. It still isn't fast enough, but it beats the h3ll out of 9600...

We frequently use the macbook to play DVDs away from the TV. An external disk reader flopping around where we could previously just set a laptop isn't going to cut it.

No Apple laptop upgrades in the future I guess unless Apple is maybe going to provide free hard drive upgrades and auto-downloads from Itunes for all titles in my physical disk library?

You didn't see this coming? Wifi is 10x faster than blu ray. Your own fault for continuing to buy into a media that just plain didn't make sense. I'm so glad that I no longer need to suffer a medium that should have been aborted when they proposed the DMCA. The existence of DVD was barely justified before being crippled with shoddy encryption.

What device is going to transmit that movie to you over WiFi?

Not a problem!

I have a 3TB hard drive connected to an Apple AirPort Extreme, and can watch 1080p Blu-Ray movies over my 802.11n network -- on PCs and Macs -- anywhere in my 2-story home or out in the yard.

Oh, great!! I thought the days of ethernet dongles were gone! For the price, they could have at least thrown in the Thunderbolt to Ethernet dongle in for free!!

I remember when we used dongles on PCM/CIA cards on our Dell Laptops. We broke countles numbers of these b/c the user would always snap the plug where it met the cards off. Gimme my ethernet port please. CD's yeah, I can see that going away. USB drives are too easy.

In the last year I've stayed in several hotels that only offer a cabled internet connection in their rooms. But I'm not a Mac guy, so I guess that's one more reason why.

Then what would be the difference between a MacBook Pro and Air? If you're gonna make it the same why even have 2 different product lines? Keep the MacBook pro with all the normal hardware features, if not more.

At home and on the road where available I prefer Ethernet. Wifi is great but it is still limited to slower speeds than ethernet and is more subject to interference. Plus Wifi is more easily eavesdropped and anywhere that you can find a legit hotspot is also likely to have several malicious hotspots

I've yet to use a wireless connection that could equal the speed of wired Ethernet. Maybe I've just encountered nothing but slow connections.

I tired of OEM deciding to save a few pennies and inconvience me by not providing it. RJ45 is and industry standard. Look in any IT infrastructure. A 1GB full duplex connection can blaze data to you NAS or Router shared HD. WiFi will never touch it and with full duplex the NIC's data is doubled to 2000MB/sec theoretical of course. I don't want a dongle (good ridence from the old PCMCIA card days of 3COM etc.

You still need to plug-in and external DVD drive for those intallation and burning requirements if if they take it out then supply it as a plug-in drive standard (not an option). Some ports become awkward to use when they're too small such as Micro USB, Mini was fine downsize with clear profile and robust to plug it in but not the micro port and I don't see the space saving there.

Buy and NAS drive or Router and you'll need a good Windows PC to set it up with the Ethernet RJ45 port. Joy and at double the price too. This just adds another Apple product to the list of becoming difficult to transfer files quickly. I-series devices without USB drive connection emulation for file transfer requiring mostly emailing attachments and the Macbooks going the same way soon enough it appears. Ideally I don't want or should need to carry any other cables or adapters/dongles than a patch cable, USB cable and my power charging system components. If you're into video's you may carry your own HDMI cable but most destinations you might need them would have them or you run down to a local store on your travels and pick it up. But they're light and non proprietary unlike a Thunderbolt to ethernet or other adapter.

Ports are important to me and one reason I never bough an iMAC. No eSATA to hang high speed drives efficiently and light years faster than Firewire. It was built into the machine already and a port on that big case could have gone anyware, but no. Apple does not want you to connect to anything that isn't or used to be unique to them.

1 Gbps is achieved at full duplex, Half duplex is supported for backwards compatibility when connecting to a hub - not that you'd want to of course!

I have not seen a hub (other than old Netgear 10 Mbps 4 porters) in years. Everything today is a switch meaning FDX. Even though 1GE uses all 8 wires it is still FDX. WiFi is HDX however.

Whether the unit can handle a full load due to limited buffering on cheap units is another thing.

You can transmit 1Gbps in each direction without collisions on 1GbE. In fact, most vendors won't even support half duplex on 1Gb. If you try, you'll find yourself operating at 100Mb, which is fine, because as far as I know, no one has ever made a 1Gb half duplex switch. EVER.

Get a better switch. I'm running 40Gbps nonblocking on an HP 3800 as we speak.

Maybe if it's your only machine... It's really easy. Boot up Ubuntu on the oldest crappiest machine you can find. Linux extracts ISOs as quickly as a hot knife cuts through butter, and Ubuntu makes it as easy. Extract the Windows installation files to the cheapest 4GB USB flash drive you can find. Tada! Faster smaller and cheaper than disk. I can't tell you what MS is thinking.

The high art and exclusivity market which pays three figures for 50 cents worth of flash will take what they are given and learn to glowabout it.

...you just got another answer.

as most of my customers only put WiFi in conference rooms. If you get a signal 60 feet down the aisle or just above or below the conference room you are lucky.

I would like to see a company with 500 people get any work done now that they have saturated all APs.

between a Thunderbolt connector and an ethernet connector at your desk? For that matter, if they spring for the docking station/monitor, they can get gig ethernet in the non-mobile space that way, too.

So now I have to budget another adapter (many, since many will get lost or broken) and docking stations for everyone? Dongles are so 1995.

and not a 'road warrior'. Many of our sales reps only enter one of our buildings once or twice a year for reviews or annual conferences.

I would expect business friendly features in a product with 'Pro' in the name. Even if they included a dock with the missing features for office use, it would be a huge improvement.

i remember when apple decided they were gonna start shipping servers without video output. Sure you can remote access your servers, who needs a monitor? well one network outage later and you are paying apple $199 for a video card to get your server back up and running. When did it become an acceptable business practice to withold hardware from a product and tout it as innovation?

"The office where I work [only] has a public Wi-Fi hotspot" !!! Wow! That's amazing. Fire your IT Manager and get someone competent!

Wireless is a risk and causes a lot of design and security headaches, particularly in arenas that are heavily regulated (such as the Financial services sector). I chose to take our wireless access points out of my network design deliberately, saving us time, money and stress in return for a minor inconvenience for our laptop and mobile handset users - does that make me "incompetent"?

take a breath before you spout judgmental commentary at other people. each network is different and it's requirements unique. Wireless is not a given in a work environment for a multitude of very good reasons - not just because some IT bod doesn't know how to safely deploy it or simply can't be bothered to.

Shall I brand you 'incompetent' for your opinion because you've failed to make the reasons for your opinion apparent? No? Didn't think so.

The worst malware I've ever gotten was when I was using hotel wireless. I went to the same sites as I usually go to, and they were reputable sites. After that, I always take a long cable with me and go wired instead of wireless.

In some businesses, you need a backup plan, and where wireless is concerned, that's ethernet cables. Case in point: When the tornado came through in February, we were on Generator for most of the day. We can't just shut down when there's no electricity as we still have to take care of our patients and keep essential services up and running. Wireless is not on generator as we power only essential services, like medical equipment, switches, etc.. on generator to ensure that it is not overloaded. Sure, we could have hauled a bunch of workstations and monitors up the stairs and set them up, but we all have laptops and it's easy to grab the laptop and a cable.

For the watts an AP uses up, design wireless with proper gen backup.

......you should make some sort of continuity plans to keep the service (or an alternative) available. This applies to any system or service, not just Wireless access. The fact of it is that wireless is very rarely categorised as 'important', let along 'essential' to the functions of a business. Ergo, why go through the hassle and cost of "design[ing] wireless with proper gen backup"?

Yes if essential, otherwise probably not.

Out of interest, how many network managers or techs here have their APs on UPS backed sockets or protected by genny backup? How many of your businesses actually do consider wi-fi and essential service for your business that holds priority for your DR or Business Continuity plans?

I ask as I can only really think of Hospitals myself and even then I think I'm wrong.

The generator is for essentials, like the medical equipment. While it would be nice to run everything on generator, it's just not feasible. We need to keep the medical equipment running first.

put all the APs on POE switches. The additional load on the generator for the switches and the APs was less than a kilowatt.

But retail is a much different environment from medical. We're talking only three or four switches and access points, not the dozens or more it takes to keep a hospital on line.

If you have ever set up a new router or required the ethernet connection to troubleshoot current wifi issues the missing ethernet port is almost a deal breaker.
You can go with the adapter from thunderbolt but my guess is that trying to find it flying around your bag somewhere or loosing it will cause headaches.
Apple should at leaste throw one adapter in to help ease the pain! - Come on! everything else you do makes sense so just put it in the box and be done with the negative views.

...just my opinion.

A well designed case can take a normal ethernet adaptor quite easily. I've seen plenty of thin and sleek designs with ethernet ports over the years. Sure, the Air is far too thin to carry one but the pro should be able to manage it.

Given that Ethernet is the principal networking technology right now, pervading every home and business with a network the question I have here is 'why'? Are Apple designing gear for coffee-shop posers again? I don't think any (non-Apple fanboy) IT tech would happily choose one of these for work - there's to many hurdles and crappy adaptor breakages to be had here.

Ethernet is far from dead yet.